carbon fibers, itch, how to get them ut of skin??

[Ty Marcucci]

Yesterday as I rotated my 660 Stiletto, I rubbed my forearm against new carbon fiber on the fuselage. Never had this happen to this degree. How in L do you get those painful fibers out of skin??  I've tried soap and water, scrub brush, oil, and still itches like crazy.

[Garf]

Should work the same as fiberglass. Take tape (wide masking tape, duct tape) and wind it sticky side out around your fingers. Use the sticky tape to remove the fibers (and hair) from your skin.

[W.D. Roland]

That's not good TY!

This is similar to fiberglass, excepting glass can be broken down by the body when worst comes to worst.
Not so with carbon, it there to stay...or move around in the body doing damage.

The tape trick from Garf helps.  Tape tends to break fibers.

At one time I made fiberglass race car bodies and had the ITCH often.
The best way I found is to get your hands on a pair of pantyhose and in hot shower(opens pores) with the hose stretched tight over hand rub in ONE direction. The panty hose will 'grab' the fibers and pull them out.
Do not go back and forth as this will break the fibers.
This method seems to remove nearly 100% of fibers.

Don't scratch the itch--it breaks the fibers



Good luck with this miserable situation!

David

[Russell Shaffer]

Boraxo seems to grab fiberglass fibers from skin. 

[bob branch]

Water yourself well. You'll have to grow em out!

bob branch

[W.D. Roland]

Hot Shower Ty, Hot shower. She may change her mind.... ( and this is the best method I ever tried)

Strange looks? Heck we play with Model airplanes, how much stranger could we be.
Besides I figure strange looks are better than some other looks from the women folk-sort of like this (her)
 (me)

On the way home from town today was thinking about this sort of thing. We all or most of us have sanded and other wise handled glass and breathed and had it in our skin, Short term pain in de arse.

I looked into making carbon fiber race car parts and was turned away by the hazardous.
This is what I remember.
As I said before glass is something the body will eventually break down and dispose of.
Man made carbon fiber is not broken down and disposed of, once in the body it is there for good but not stationary.
The possibility of it entering the blood stream and damaging organs seemed to be a concern in the industry.

Using tape on the loose end of cuts so that every strand can be disposed of is on other methods talked about.
A clean room environment so as to make accounting for every scrap of CF was another.

Sanding ONLY with a vacuum source to capture ALL dust so on and so forth.

Some where around here is a book on composites and mfg of such that has a whole chapter devoted to working safely with CF.( race car industry)
If any one wants Congress Cat Number for the book I will look.

Now after saying all that I still do minor CF sanding like it was glass.   

David

[George]

...The best way I found is to get your hands on a pair of pantyhose and in hot shower(opens pores) with the hose stretched tight over hand rub in ONE direction. The panty hose will 'grab' the fibers and pull them out.
Do not go back and forth as this will break the fibers...

David

If someone uses this method, for goodness sake don't give 'em back...or you'll hear it for the rest of your life!   

George

[Steve Helmick]

I have a spool of Boron fiber for your next experiments, Ty. I haven't figured out how to dispose of it. I've never used it, but Boron makes CF look like child's play toys.  Steve