Joseph Herbert on sun 6 feb 11
Hello,
About CFCs: everyone who previously uses chlor/fluro hydrocarbons as
cleaners really misses them. In my youth, carbon tetrachloride was the
go-to chemical cleaner. Came in a bottle with a fiber ball on a wire. Use=
d
it to clean typewriter keys (remember those?), appeared in fire
extinguishers, kind of like water. Also really heavy. A bottle of carbon
tet was noticeably heavy. Magical chemicals, better living through
chemistry.
Then came the dawn. Some of these chemicals are implicated in causing
cancer by ingestion, others are implicated in Australian skin cancers
(because of that ozone thing). So, there are a number of reasons to not us=
e
these things, none of them having to do with effectiveness. There are thes=
e
other issues...
Finally, the direct danger part of the question: when CFCs are sprayed on a
heated surface, they can produce phosgene. This is a famous poison gas fro=
m
WWI and other efforts at wholesale slaughter of people. Having CFCs
evaporate off pieces as the kiln heats should not create this problem. If
one were to spray these chlorine-containing materials on glowing electric
kiln wires, well, that is a different story.
It is a little hard to believe that a suitable oil/thinner combination that
does not involve chlorine cannot be found. For example, oil painting
mediums and solvents might work for the purpose.
Think of Ivor's future.
Joe
Joseph Herbert
Training Developer
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