It is a strange duality, right? If HD leaves it in stores, then it is assumed it is safe. If they remove it, they are a nanny state.
Totally reasonable though. It is really hard to imagine getting killed by something that gave you a headache 20 years ago.
Soldering is something I grapple with too. I use leaded solder. I am teaching my kids how to solder. Lead never leaves the body, so I am slowly poisoning us.
But I use it something like a few times per year. I do try to blow the smoke away from my face (with a fan), but I don’t filter it out or anything. I think it is probably ok.
If I had a job soldering for 40 hrs/week, I would not put up with these conditions. I would need the setup to have zero lead exposure and I bet most employers would insist that too (filters are cheaper than lawsuits).
It is really hard to imagine risks that are a fraction of a fraction of a percent, multiplied by millions or billions. Does it end up being certain illness? Certain safety? Some uncertain future? You have to have the right numbers and do the math. Or accept the outcome if you don’t.
I remembered the muriatic acid from some rust-removal activities I did a number of years ago… and how just a small whiff, as you took the top off the bottle, almost took your breath away and singed your nostrils. Removed rust real well… but I knew it wasn’t something to take lightly and play with.
Being a EE, and technician before that, I always loved the smell of the lab. Solder smells (the leaded stuff) were especially good… and I always enjoyed soldering. I would blow the smoke away (like blowing out candles on a cake) so I could see what I was doing but that smell was always in the air. We also used toluene IIRC to spot remove conformal coatings for PCB repair and part replacement. I’m sure it added to the allure as well…
I also love the smells of the country… earthy barnyard smells, a distant skunk, fresh-cut grass, wood smoke, fertile lake water, etc… all conjure up good memories. Too close, it can be overpowering and/or a stench. But just a whiff in the distance… can’t be all bad, can it?
Acetone is one of the ketones that your body will generate on a low carbohydrate diet. Or well… Any diet in which you are losing body fat, since it is a byproduct of oxidizing fats.
High concentrations can make you dizzy, probably more from displacement of oxygen, rather than inherent toxicity, but of course the concentrations in question are far beyond what the body will produce in any survivable state.
I can’t say that I’m over worried about the stuff, as I have largish quantities around the house. I used to buy the large jugs at the big box, but i found a dollar store nail polish remover brand that is 100% acetone, and comes to between 1/2 to 2/3 the price to refill one of the metal gallon jugs that I have. (I worry about many dollar store brands, but the only thing they could do here is water it down, and its performance indicates to me that it isn’t. Anything else that they might add to it would cost more than acetone to produce, so I figure it’s safe enough.)
LOL. If you’ve ever been in an elevator with someone who is on a keto diet… You’ve got that whiff.
This was written by a “Process Man”, and I always think of it when I think of fumes and particulates:
I worked in the huge ICI Chemical Plants in Teesside for 10 years (1956—66), in Terylene & Nylon Works at Wilton and making fertilizer and cyanide at Billingham. My father worked all his life at Billingham ICI, down the anhydrite mine and used to have nightmares about the dust killing him. He died at 62, a few months after being brought home sick from work. That was fifteen years ago and I still miss him. I don’t know if dedications are corny or not, but if you allow them I’d like to dedicate this song to my dad, Billy Angel.
The song was written about three years before I left ICI, through redundancy. I was experiencing ill—health and had applied to come off shift work, which I felt might be responsible; together with the fumes and excessive noise. On day work, in an office, I immediately improved. I hated every day I worked there and my redundancy, though it brought its own problems, felt like a release from prison. Source: Sing Out! Magazine, Volume 29, Number 3 (1983), pages 52-53
I think what we have now, that we didn’t earlier on in the history of the use of many of these substances, is a better understanding of the effects of cumulative exposure.
As I’ve said on these forums before, everyone (I guess I should say “adults” ) gets to set their own level of risk acceptance, and decide on the mitigation strategies they want to use. Having good data is a prerequisite to making those good decisions.
Now… Lacquer thinner… Took me over a year to find gloves that work well at that stuff to where my hands wouldn’t be burning when I finished cleaning my HVLP guns.
I appreciate you all and the “education” you’ve brought to the party… but we’ve been off the OT for a while now. I recognize safety isn’t my strong point and at this late date I doubt that’ll change. Most of us have now had a chance to air our views on the matter of safety but I think Tom has said it best…
I’ve always tried to share, in useful detail, the techniques/methods I use to do my “thing”. And If you find anything I do helpful here… please feel free to adopt/adapt it to your liking and level of risk acceptance.
AFAICT I’m not suffering ill effects from the occasional, brief use of acetone to remove a little paint from a ceramic tile or two. Old age aches and pains have a far greater effect on me now. Meanwhile I’m gonna return to our “original programming” and keep playing as much as I can for as long as I can.
Not fussin’… I absolutely love interacting with all of you on this forum. This is “home” to me… and where most of my best-est friends are found. Thank you all.
As someone who’d like to someday add a laser to the toy-box I’d bet I’m far from the only one here who greatly appreciates the time you take to share your experiences with us.
A retired EE, I’m always messing around with different machines and this is just “another” one… I’ve got several. This little machine, however, is an exceptionally sturdy, all-metal, 4-wheel 2040 V-slot machine… not necessarily “better” than other machines but well-built and nicely suited to this particular task. I have done a couple of tiles with it so far…
The biggest “problem” with this machine is the proprietary Chinese firmware and application software it came with… and it requires a little “sweat equity” on your part to make it useful. Once I flashed Grbl onto the controller and added a Z-lift mechanism I’m quite pleased with it. If Cenoz (or whoever) would just put stock Grbl on the controller to start with and advertise it to be Lightburn compatible… it wouldn’t add anything to the cost to manufacture and I’d bet they could sell a ton of these things.
I know you do a lot with the white tiles but do you find that you need to do test tiles if you switch what you’re laser burning? I understand needing to do different ones if you use a different laser or if you’re doing the white paint vs black paint method on different materials. I guess I’m wondering if you find a big difference between different tiles when you’re doing the white paint method with the same laser.
I recommend doing a test tile with different lasers and/or paint… they do vary quite a bit. Here are a few test tiles with different lasers… 2.3W, 3W, ~4.5W, ~5W and ~10W (left to right, top to bottom). I find the “blackest/nicest black” and use that speed and power for best results with that laser and paint.
If you are asking about the white ceramic tiles themselves, I’ve not tried other brands. I bought a couple of boxes of 100 tiles for ~$15, Daltile brand, at HD… so am still working off my original supply. I’ve played with bits and pieces of broken tiles, however, and usually get “close enough”, usable, results with the white ceramic tile settings for a given laser and paint.
One question I think was asked, but your answer wasn’t quite clear to me: Are you using the “stock” laser for all the tiles you’re showing? Will the stock laser cut through any thin material?
Have you tried to put the Neje A40640 on the machine?
Thanks for all you do to promote the use of the laser. I was able to get one of the $79 machines and it is set up , but I haven’t changed the firmware yet.
The sturdiness and small size of this laser make it almost perfect for doing small projects… ceramic tiles, slate coasters, rotary stuff, etc. Thankfully, a low-powered 2W to 3W laser – like this one – is also up to this task and the last couple of tiles I’ve shown have been with the “stock” laser on this machine.
I’m fortunate to be “rich in machines to play with” (being retired and with nothing else to do…) and can employ any of several other machines to do bigger, tougher jobs… like cutting thicker and/or larger materials. So I don’t have a pressing need to put other lasers on this little Cenoz machine and can afford to “dedicate” it to this one type of task.
That said, the Z-lift mechanism I designed and installed accommodates quite a number of different laser modules… most all Neje modules will fit and a lot of others, including this one. And the laser wiring is a common 3-wire setup (+12V/Gnd/PWM) that is pretty easily adapted to. So there’s really no reason you can’t use a different laser with it.
You could easily add the A40640 Neje laser to it and then you’ll be limited only by the small size of the machine. If/when cutting thicker materials, you’ll probably want/need air-assist as well… so it’s just more stuff you’ll have in proximity to the engraver itself. As supplied, this 3W laser will do what other low-powered lasers typically do when cutting materials… and its success all depends on material thickness/type, quality of focus/dot-size, speed/power, air-assist, and a host of other things particular to a given user’s setup. I’ve cut a lot of Walmart 1.5mm craft sticks (popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, etc) with 2.5W and 3W lasers.
I have a MPCNC that can do the big jobs, and I have all the air assist stuff that you have posted in the past.
I just downloaded the “new” z-height STLs but wondered which one(s) i need to print if I already have the first generation one you posted? Rather than print a whole new one, I’d just like to make the “difference” parts.
