I was talking to my uncle who is in the Air National Guard about making CF parts. He said they recently went through recovery training for the new fighter jets which are made mostly out of carbon fiber. He said they were told to never approach a crashed jet, especially if it is on fire because the fumes are toxic. He also said that they were told not to approach a crash site even if it was not on fire because the splintered CF dust in the air was also toxic.
I’ve seen posts about being careful with the CF dust on this discussion board, but they are only w.r.t. skin irritation. Been there, done that - it always seems to land in my crotch. Then my wife asks why I itch so much. Anyway, learned my lesson there - aim the dremel so the dust does not collect b/t your legs. Lately, I’ve been aiming the dust to my shop vac intake.
So my question is how careful do I need to be when trimming my CF parts? Is the toxicity more a function of the resin/hardener (i.e. epoxy hardener toxicity)? I imagine that for a fighter jet they’re only using epoxy resin. Do I need to be worried about PER or VER laid up epoxy? Other than normal precautions of wearing a respirator?
Thanks for the feedback!
Cheers,
Jeremy