Painting Regolith?

[Gary Dillard]

Sorry to remind everyone of a painful time in our lives.....
Has anyone tried to paint the "regolith" material from 2009? We still have a boatload of it, and I was considering using some for cover panels, but it looks, well, you know. I thought maybe painting it red or blue or silver might help, but I'm not sure if spray paint would stick to the slick side.

[thefro526]

We have the same material on some of the panels we use at my job and paint will stick to them. If I remember correctly they scuff the surface of the panel and use primer before painting and it seems to come out okay. (If you want the exact process I can find out)

[Mr V]

Krylon makes "Fusion for Plastics" haven't tried it myself though.

[Tom I]

Yeah Krylon is some of the best paint for plastics. I'd recommend running a sander over it to rough up the surface a bit, then apply it in light, even coats, and add more than 1 coat.

[Phyrxes]

I keep threatening to put some panels of it on our robot instead of polycarb and make first year students put speed holes in it to bring the weight back down to something sane. I suppose it could also look nice on an OI or as part of a pit display.

[DonRotolo]

Maybe a pit shower?

[Ankit S.]

Just a word of warning, when we were cutting our regolith to fit in a corner of our workspace, the powder and fumes that were created caused some of our students to become a tad bit nauseous. I do not think anything major happened, but if you have a sensitive stomach you may want to stay clear from the regolith when drilling/cutting/sanding it.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by BeltSanderRocks

Just a word of warning, when we were cutting our regolith to fit in a corner of our workspace, the powder and fumes that were created caused some of our students to become a tad bit nauseous. I do not think anything major happened, but if you have a sensitive stomach you may want to stay clear from the regolith when drilling/cutting/sanding it.

It's fibreglass. Don't breathe it in. Your stomach is the least of your concerns.

The silica from the fibres is probably a weak carcinogen and lung irritant (I say probably, because I don't know if the fibre shards are the right shape to embed themselves in lung tissue). The resin matrix isn't health food, but should be reasonably safe if you keep the temperature down so it doesn't decompose (i.e. don't cut it with a fast tool that will overheat it and generate fumes).

A NIOSH N95 mask is a minimum requirement; they're dirt-cheap. A respirator isn't a bad idea either.

Incidentally, the same goes for teams that use fibreglass structural extrusions—take appropriate dust-abatement measures.