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How do I get all this fiberglass out of my skin? I was cutting away at the boat today in a short sleeve shirt and am regretting it now. Did the cold shower thing and even used stips of masking tape and ripped them off with no luck. Please Help!!!
Try this. We had a long discussion. http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=86493
HeHe The first thing is use your head, stop and think. Anytime you can use a sabersaw or a sawsall your better off than using a wizz wheel or a circular saw. They throw dust all over you and everywhere else.
Theres a cream called Glove coat. It works pretty good, but it makes you hot. It seals the pores in your skin. It comes in a tube and you rubb it on and let it dry. Takes about 5min to dry. It's water soluable, so wash with water to get it off.
The next thing is a Tyvex suit. They are hot too. No air can get thru them and no fiberglass dust either. You can get them with booty's and hood attached. Surgical gloves and 2in tape for your wrists.
The next thig is take the coldest shower you can stand. Use hair conditioner as soap. Rub it on very lightly and let it set, then rince. Next use regular soap. The hair conditioner is a trick I was told a long time ago, when I did Corvette work.
I have built a tolerance to the itch over the years. With that said I don't get down a woller in it. Of corse a partical mask and I use a full face shield. Get it in your eyes and you've got a real mess. This is a good time to spend some money on tools that you don't have, to keep from slinging fiberglass all over. The worst tool that slings glass is a 4,7 or 9in grinder. It will make your shop look like a cocain factory blew up in it. HeHe That's how mine looks. REMEMBER USE YOUR HEAD FIRST! Take your time and make your layups clean. That way you don't have to use the grinder much. Do sloppy work and then get out the grinder to clean it up. Use visqueen and duct tape when working on vertical surfaces to keep the resign from running down all over everything. PS Hot water opens your pours and rubbing with soap drives the glass in farther.
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http:www.classicmako.com
I just walked in from a 3 hour grinding session. I am so hot and tired that the itch isn't bothering me. In the cooler months, I wear a tyvec suit (with mask & goggles) and that is about 95% effective. But during the summer the mask & goggles are hot enough, so I just wear a long sleeved T and let my legs get the itch. A cheap pair of scrub pants might help the legs (I just thought of that, but too late).
I usually try to get a good rinse with the spray nozzle on the hose when I quit, but I'm not done yet! I'm gonna have a quart of water and some of the beer that Warthog didn't drink when he was here last and get back to it!
I am dead center in the sun (since I don't have a shop or a tent big enough to put the boat under, so I'm sweating my nads off, my skin peres are open, and it doesn't matter what I do... I'm goona itch tonight!
Gotta second what Warthog said about the cocaine factory. I've been running a 4" grinder at 10,000rpm and a 7" grinder at 2500rpm all morning. The driveway looks like it is coated with coke as well as my neighbors car! I vacuumed up the inside of the boat which was caked with the stuff, and blew as much off of the nieghbors car as I could with my compressor. http://www.classicmako.com
I just got in from grinding one the Formula. I am having a hell of a time getting the cabin liner out
Finally cut it in three piees with a circular saw (got crap all over me from that), and finally removed the middle section. Whover put the thing in fiberglassed it in on top, on the bottom, on the sides, in places you can't reach,etc. They sure weren't thinking about me when they installed it
Anyway, soon all the guts will be out and I can start the layup. Now if I could just get this itching to stop...
Here's 2 self portraits of my ugly a$$, please don't be scared. The first one is the residual fiberglass dust that wouldn't come off with the 140psi blast of air from my compressor. The second shot is me in my get-up. The cars that pass by my house must get a good laugh. Haha real funny, a guy who can't afford a nice boat!
LOL, all I had today was a cheap paper dust mask and an even cheaper pair of saftey goggles. Man, you are lucky to be able to work on your boat in your driveway. I live in one of those deed restricted deals, where my neighbors will piss and moan about a boat out front.
I had the reciprocating saw with me today but somehow, the blades were not in my case (My boat is 45mins away from my house). I had to use my makita 4" ginder with a carbide wood blade. Worked pretty well, not a whole lot of fine dust, just the corse stuff. My liner is almost completely out except around the fuel tank (still have to drain it). Everything is cored with balsa and takes a long time to get through it (talk about HEAVY!!).
If I had to do it again, I would get a 20 foot pool vacuum hose and duct tape it to the ass end of a vacuum cleaner, and cut a hole in the back of a tyvec suit then attach the exhaust end of the hose to the suit so the suit stayed pressurized like a spacesuit. It'd keep all the dust out and keep me cool at the same time. I feel y'alls pain. chip.
Seabird, I hate to say it, but after a week or two you get used to the dust and the itch! I have found that there is no secret cure. Just do what you have to do (using breathing and eye protection of course) and blow off with air when you are done before you rub or scratch. ASAP take a luke warm/cool shower and scrub like crazy with a terry cloth wash towel and plain soap. Hot water seems to open skin pores and allow dust to bed deeper, while very cold water seems to cause pores to close and trap fibers. There will always be some residual which you will surly notice when trying to sleep!
2 years ago when I was cutting my Mako apart. I put a 18,000 BTU air conditioner in the big shop part.
It was working it's a** off. I left it run for 48hrs 2 times in one month. I'd put my Tyvex suit on and the 30in fan blowing on me. It was tolrable!
You should have seen the A/C filter. Ugh! I still would just keep going in order to get done. I wanted out of that suit and the grinding done.
Then the power bill came. All STOP! The A/C would keep the shop at 80deg, when it was pushing 95-98 outside.That part of the shop is 30X30X14 steel building.
It's just to Damn Hot to be screwing with this stuff!
the fiberglass is nasty in contact with skin,
ie putting in fg insulation in a house is the
same deal...it is not an allergic reaction, but
simply the inert fg particles in the skin like
minute arrows...the skin will shed in a few days
and take the fg "arrows" with it...the only rx
is prevention, i use a cotton turtleneck with
jeans, leather gloves, and faceshield...the key
is to duct tape the cuffs x 4...oh, wear a ski
hat...get the whole magilla on, do the whole
job (no breaks) and strip at once....the clothes
go to the washing machine and you go the shower
...works for poison ivy also!.............dan
Ok first post here, but believe me i've been there before. An old salt suggestion i've found pretty effective, is grab a pair of nylons from the wife, rub them back and forth over the area. the fine mesh of the nylons does a pretty good job or removing the fiberglass. Just double check with the wife, so your not using her brand new ones, itching is one thing...B*tching is much worse.
After several years of building and repairing fiberglass boats, I've learned to rub baby powder into the pores of the skin BEFORE doing any grinding or cutting of fiberglass (most importantly the arms, legs and stomach areas).
By filling the pores with baby powder it will prevent most of the fiberglass particles from entering and irritating the skin. This helps tremendously.
Another trick I learned the hard way was masking tape. After brushing my fg antenna that had started to shed, it left tiny particles in my arm. lay the masking tape on the affected area, peel off gently. hold it up to some light and you'll be amazed. I feel your pain, too... good luck.
Fiberglass Itch 
