Re: READY TO PAINT !

[protek@shreve.net]

Vance,
    
You wrote:

>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. 

I would not want to be in the hull even in the initial flash.  I am sure
there are some paints that are far better than others in avoiding
combustion.  However, the paints that I use are highly flamable and given
the enclosed nature of a pressure hull would create quite an expansion of
extreamly hot and burning gasses.  I don't believe that it would be as easy
to avoid injury as it sounds.  Fires in homes do not directly kill many
people.  It is in many cases the extremely hot gasses that are breathed
into the lungs.  Even with an external supply this is not something I would
want to experience.  If you were in my psub painting the ends and had to
get out it would take you a while.  Not as easy as standing up.

>	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.  

The evaporated vehicle is dangerous and explosive mixed with air just as
the paint droplets are themselves.  I saw a fellow launch a potatoe about
500 feet once with one small application of hair spray and a spark
generator.  Being enclosed makes things much worse.

>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.

That was what I suggested in my email.  At least wear some clothes that
don't generate static.  I don't think grounding the hull will help but will
not hurt for sure.  With the painter inside, the biggest threat will come
from static generated by moving around and rubbing materials together.  

I painted my hull inside with both end caps off prior to welding them onto
the ends.  I then welded them on and cleaned away the burned paint, primed
the ends with a brush and painted them with a brush.  You can not tell the
difference.

>	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.


Gary Bocher