I've always just opend the garage door when I was in the small shop, and now in a big shop I still open the door when it's warm enough. Even without it open, there seems to be sufficient ventilation. Are you saying that even with adequate ventilation a respirator is necessary? Are the fumes lighter than air?

Also, I have noticed that the latex gloves I am using do OK with epoxy, but when I go to clean with acetone it eats right through them. I really like the oven cleaning gloves from the grocery store better.

> Probably not necessary, but not a bad precaution. Years ago epoxy
> formulators weren't smart enough to make low viscosity resins without
> loading them up with volatile organic solvents, like acetone, toluene,
> xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone and so on, all nasty
> stuff. The newest generation of epoxy is "100% solids", i.e.
> nothing evaporates, all the liquid turns into solid. Part of this is
> development of shorter epoxy molecules, but part is also due to use of
> reactive and nonreactive diluents. None of these components is as
> hazardous as organic solvents, but there is a wide variety of these
> chemicals and they have varying characteristics.

> Given sufficient exposure, nearly everyone will develop a sensitivity to
> epoxy, but as with tobacco there is a wide range of threshhold levels.
> Once sensitized, you're sensitized for life. That's not terribly
> debilitating, but it's totally unnecessary. At the very least you should
> wear latex gloves and long sleeves to keep it off your skin, and a
> respirator to prevent lung exposure is a small price to pay to head off
> contact dermatitis in an area that's hard to scratch.