newbie question - safety, garage, fumes, prepreg

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

Total newbie question :slight_smile:

Can composites (mostly interested in carbon fiber) be done in the garage safely and without bothering everybody else in the house? I like the idea of playing with this technology in the attached garage but reading the health/safety materials and noting the proximity of the forced air furnace, etc, , I’m having second thoughts. I live in the Pacific Northwest – and we’re well into the rainy season.

Is this story any better if I stick to prepreg and an autoclave/oven? Scale is parts/product prorotyping eg. iterative one offs.

thanks,
Adam

ps. glad to find this resource. I asked on a Carbon Fiber Fabricators facebook group to no avail.

#2

As long if you stick to epoxy or prepreg the smell is no problem. If you get your air circulated with fresh air I shouldn’t worry. Working with composites isn’t healthy, that doesn’t matter in what kind of workshop you work. When you’re going to sand the stuf go outside and use a dust mask.

#3

I used to do some polyester work in my garage… I just wore a respirator and had no issues but you could smell it from out side. I guess I was far away enough from the apartment.

Epoxy is a breeze though. You should have no issues with smell. Pre preg is the same. Epoxy is fairly clean stuff to work with, just use standard ppe stuff to keep from getting it on your skin and make sure to let it cure before disposing of waste.