Corinne P. Null on mon 15 sep 97
At a potters gathering the other night, heard a story about a guy from
UMass (some time back) who actually died from paraffin fumes. Not just
"got sick". Bit the big one. Got ME busy!
Would an old stove hood vent work for paraffin fumes? What about a glaze
weighing area? Could I get an old used one cheaply from a store that sells
and installs stoves?
I have an electric kiln vent going out the wall. Is there an adaptor that
would allow me to hook the paraffin vent into the same hole in the wall,
perhaps with a flap that could be opened and closed to prevent kiln venting
to come back into the studio via the paraffin vent and visa versa? (It's
cold up here - don't want too many holes in the wall!)
Thought some of you jury-riggers might have some experience on this :)
Thanks
Corinne
Corinne Null
Bedford, NH
cnull@MCIONE.com (New e-mail address)
Bill Aycock on tue 16 sep 97
Corinne---
First- I think any time thinking about safety, and the prevention of health
problems is well spent-
BUT
The first thing I would do is to find the FACTS about this guy who died. I
will make a small wager that, if he existed, the problem was not as simple
as "paraffin fumes". Get the source of the story to quote "when and where".
If significant amounts of paraffin (I expect they really meant petroleum
based candle wax) fumes can have that effect, many of our ancestors would
not have survived long enough to be ancestors.
It sounds like you have some of the basics in place now. check this out
before running off into a complicated and expensive exercise in "super-safe"
At 08:39 AM 9/15/97 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>At a potters gathering the other night, heard a story about a guy from
>UMass (some time back) who actually died from paraffin fumes. Not just
>"got sick". Bit the big one. Got ME busy!
SNIP
>
>Corinne Null
>Bedford, NH
>
>cnull@MCIONE.com (New e-mail address)
>
>
Bill Aycock --- Persimmon Hill --- Woodville, Alabama, US 35776
--- (in the N.E. corner of the State) ---
also -- W4BSG -- Grid EM64vr
baycock@hiwaay.net
Vince Pitelka on tue 16 sep 97
>I have an electric kiln vent going out the wall. Is there an adaptor that
>would allow me to hook the paraffin vent into the same hole in the wall,
>perhaps with a flap that could be opened and closed to prevent kiln venting
>to come back into the studio via the paraffin vent and visa versa? (It's
>cold up here - don't want too many holes in the wall!)
Corinne -
You cannot use a stovepipe vent and hood by themselves, because convection
is not enough to do the trick. I used stove pipe ducting exiting through
the roof, with a simple homemade sheetmetal hood mounted directly above the
wax pot, but with a small squirrel-cage blower mounted inline in the
stovepipe. Heat is not an issue, because plenty of room air mixes with the
parafin fumes. You want a hood which develops enough negative pressure at
the hood so that cross drafts will not be a problem. The sides and back of
the hood should extend down around the wax pot, so that only the front is
open.
>Thought some of you jury-riggers might have some experience on this :)
Isn't it "jerry-riggers?" I thought that "jury-riggers" were the folks
responsible for the outcome of the OJ trial.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
Home 615/597-5376, work 615/597-6801, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
| |
|
