Re: READY TO PAINT !

[VBra676539@aol.com]

Gary,
	Anything is possible but I think it would take a little more oxygen 
to sustain the fire you are worrying about.  The high end marine paints are 
solvent based and certainly more apt to burn given the opportunity, but it 
ain't like you have to do much more than stand up in a flash fire to be out 
of it in one of the psubs.  Heavy ventilation won't work as spraying, by 
nature, requires still air.  Ever tried to paint a boat on a breezy day?  Or 
a lawn chair, for that matter?  You just get mess everywhere and not much 
coating continuity.
	You could probably use a HEPA over the conning tower or even through 
a viewport opening, to move air without so much turbulence that you disturb 
the application, but truth be told the chemicals aren't so volatile as you 
might suspect.  Sure, they'll burn, but what they are really doing is 
evaporating like crazy as you spray and they develop a film pretty quickly.  
If sparks worry you, why not run a ground strap to the hull and wear cotton 
clothes?  Better yet, brush paint the stuff and don't worry about it.
	The real problem with the solvent based paints is that they are toxic 
as hell and can really wreck a healthy set of lungs in an astonishingly short 
time.  The stuff will soak through the pores of your skin and coat your 
fingernails like nobody's business, and just ain't necessary on a psub.  Who 
cares if it cost $300 a gallon and makes the Onassis yacht look like a 
million gleaming bucks?!  All we want is some distance between our hulls and 
the deep blue sea.
Regards,
Vance