: Does anybody have an msds for raka 127 and 350 hardener? I have an organic
: respirator, but am wondering how bad it would be for the rest of my house
: if I use this in the basement. Thanks.

Hey Shaun

RAKA 127 / 350 is my epoxy of choice and although I don't have the MSDS on it, I can give you a couple of instances that have occured with myself and a friend.

I have coated a canoe hull, a small dingy and a kayak. The kayak and dingy I did in my garage with the doors open and no respirator for part of both. I wore one for the initial glassing but did not use one when filling the weave on either. I never had any issues with the epoxy except getting the sticky stuff on my.

I glassed my Rob-Roy canoe indoors with the door closed. In the 3 or 4 different sessions working with the epoxy I got a little light headed after about an hour and a half in the closed room, working the epoxy and glass to remove all the bubbles, wrinkles and such. The fill coats took much less time and I had no problems.

The RAKA hardener has a slight odor of ammonia by itself. When mixed it is very weak, but as with my one experience, working in the enclosed garage for a long period of time, it had an affect on me.

When sanding I've always worn protective gear and only a couple of times had an itching problem where it came in contact with my bare skin on my forearms.

However: I have a few friends that have come over and on one occasion, one of my friends had a very severe reaction to the fumes.
I was glueing some joints on a skin boat using thickened epoxy w/redwood sawdust. She and her husband came over and visited for a while. After about 30 minutes in my house she started caughing, soon becoming very violent caughing to the point of not being able to breath. I had only mixed an ounce or two for these joints and in the diningroom, and she was in the livingroom... about 30' away. We couldn't figure out what was going on as her husband has never had a problem, nor their kids, who have been around my work several times in the past. I finally put 2 and 2 together and told her to get outside and sit in the fresh air. She did so and within 5 minutes, she was fine.. She's a smoker and we sorta figured, at first, that this was just a smoking issue. Her husband and I decided to try something and spoke to her and had her come back in the house again, more or less as an experiment. Within 5 minutes, she started caughing all over again, once again to the point of having difficulty breathing. She went back outside and all was fine again in 5 minutes or so.

So, you can see that this stuff will have different affects on different people and there's no way to really be sure beforehand. The best case scenerio is to try and vent the fumes out of the room, out doors so it will dissipate in the air outside. If you want to experiment you could make up some of the epoxy and have the family come down in the room for a short while and see if anyone has a reaction. But, if they do, that might be considered a bit cruel.. ?

Hope this helps...!

Rehd