Hi there, I'm an art technician in an art department for a secondary school. Our A-Level students are looking to use some Epoxy resin, I was wondering if i could get any advice on a resin safe to use in schools and age appropriate?

It depends what they are trying to do?  Although there some are marketed as non-toxic, you still need to take safety precautions such as gloves, eye splash protection, no eating etc and working in a well ventilated location.  Many of these precautions will be familiar from Science chemistry experiments or playing with paints etc in D&T classes.  Notwithstanding the fact that however safe a material may appear, some users may have allergies/sensitivities to working with epoxies and other types of resin.

Specifically once you are looking at a specific resin, download the SDS as that has more specific details for that resin. 

In terms of age, I would expect with suitable supervision, high school students would be fine to use most of the these kinds of products subject to suitable PPE etc.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

+x

 

Warren (Staff) - 9/26/2019 9:33:26 AM

It depends what they are trying to do?  Although there are less toxic epoxies on the market, you still need to take safety precautions such as gloves, eye splash protection, no eating etc and working in a well ventilated location.  Many of these precautions will be familiar from Science chemistry experiments or playing with paints etc in D&T classes.  

Specifically once you are looking at a specific resin, download the SDS as that has more specific details for that resin. 

In terms of age, I would expect with suitable supervision, high school students would be fine to use most of the these kinds of products subject to suitable PPE etc.

Perfect, thank-you! Is there any particular resin you would recommend?

Many thanks for the response!

What process are you trying to do as certain resins are designed for different things?

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

For that kind of work, casting up to 10mm per layer, then you can use the GlassCast 10 Clear Epoxy Casting Resin.  If you pour each subsequent layer when the previous one has become firm but tacky (the B stage cure), then you will minimise the chance of seeing lines between each pour.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant