Open flame and epoxy vapors

priest312

priest312

Location
Arlington wa
Last night I was installing my bilge pump. Used JB Kwik Weld to attach the bilge to my hull near the stock bilge. 20 mins later i was wiring and went to heat up my shrink tubing using a lighter. The vapors from the JB weld filled the bottom of my hull and the lighter ignited them. Big blue fire ball inside my ski, singed all my arm hair. Luckily just before grabbing my lighter I moved my open bottle off acetone (for prepping the bilge mating surfaces). I just wanted to post this as a reminder/warning to others not to be an idiot like me. However now I am worried about even using a heat gun in there for my shrink wrap. It doesn't have an open flame and I already lit most of the vapors so I should be fine, but still worried about it.
 
priest312

priest312

Location
Arlington wa
Restosud
I obviously didn't either, thinking about it now I'm still not sure it does.

Jetmaniac
I agree, the fuel isn't the danger it's the fuel vapors which thanks to a quick google I learned are more dense than air thus settling in my hull and igniting with an open flame. I essentially stuck a lighter in an empty fuel container.

I'm new to skis and didn't even think about the hull trapping vapors. I've always used a lighter to heat my shrink wrap, I keep a lighter in my wiring box for that purpose. I got lucky with almost zero repercussions of such a stupid act, hopefully my post will make someone else think a little longer than I did before making a poor choice.
 
Dalton

Dalton

Location
Wisconsin
Epoxy vapors are flammable, however, flammable vapors are usually only emitted at high temperatures in excess of 300 degrees. It would seem more likely that it was left over acetone fumes from cleaning the surfaces.

Still a close call! I had a half gallon of epoxy begin billowing white/grey fumes once. Scary stuff.
 
Nate_D

Nate_D

Location
Houston, TX
Harbor freight is my favorite store for disposable tools. In their defense, some of the tools are pretty decent. The HVLP they sell isn't half bad, that is until it spits white sealant goop all over your work. Then you want to toss it in a bucket of acetone and set it on fire. This might explain why so many of their tools end up on fire...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
gto0209

gto0209

Location
wisconsin
The hvlp guns work fine as long as you clean all the sealant out. Used them on a daily basis to paint commercial equipment and never had an issue
 
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