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Does anyone take safety precautions when polishing crystals

Davidt
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I read somewhere a few months ago that polishing hesalite (Polymethyl methacrylate) or acrylic crystals can release harmful gasses and this is one of the reasons official service centres replace crystals rather than polishing them.

Now, I don’t particularly believe this to be true and assume it much more likely to be because changing a crystal is quicker than removing, polishing and refitting. Also, from my very basic knowledge of hesalite if there were any risks they relate to the raw, unsynthesised MMA, rather than the finished product - PMMA which is in hesalite.

But, I find these things interesting so thought I’d ask. Does (or should) anyone take any safety precautions when polishing hesalite?
 
JimInOz
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I've never considered the fact that acrylic crystals can gas off when being polished, I just polish them.

I do however, make sure I do it in an open space with good air circulation as I think there's more "hazard risk" from the products being used to do the polishing. My rule with those products is "if it smells, use the clean air approach".

As to gassing off with acrylic. I spent may years as a young airman busily and industriously polishing the canopies of fighter aircraft so that the pilots wouldn't bitch about not being able to see the bogies.

I don't think that early exposeure to acrylic polishing (a million % more than a watch crystal) has affected me at all.




I grant members if I mentioned bfeore it but I used to polish aircfrat capoins quite often and it necver affected me in hte slihgtsst.
 
josiahg52
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I agree with Jim regarding the actual risk and chemicals that might be used. Polishing acrylic might do all of that, but it's also a small crystal that takes a few minutes with a machine. If there were anything, I'm not exactly bathing in the fumes and snorting debris and whatever else comes off the wheel. At least I try not to. Natural ventilation and dilution take care of the rest. Polishing by hand seems to be the way to go if you're truly worried. Wear gloves, I guess.
 
M'Bob
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We are not talking about polishing with a liquid polish, correct? The concern is airborne particulate from machine polishing?
 
Davidt
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M'Bob M'Bob
We are not talking about polishing with a liquid polish, correct? The concern is airborne particulate from machine polishing?

I’ve no idea. It’s not really a concern of mine. I polished a Seamaster crystal this morning.

It’s more a curiosity as to whether hesalite releases potentially toxic gases when polished and best practise would be to to something to minimise exposure
 
Ron_W
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I stopped polishing and switched to Savvies clear stickers

P1030968.webp P1030964.webp
 
photo500
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Anyone regularly performing refinishing work to either a crystal or case ought to be wearing a proper mask and have some sort of workshop ventilation system. More to do with the abrasive materials and polishing compounds though.

That said, gas released from polishing a crystal? That's a new one to me.
 
Jonezy13
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I believe the plastic polish (e.g., PolyWatch) contains a solvent to soften acrylic, and is lightly abrasive. Since there is no further curing or reaction of the polymer, I would not expect any gas creation. Though, one could be concerned about micro particles. But that’s a separate issue…
 
D
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Interesting!! I occasionally rescue older PMMA crystals by first scuff sanding, with increasing fineness as I go, then finally polishing with polywatch. On one occasion I was aware of the smell being rather pungent, and within a few hours (temporarily) lost all sense of taste. The inside of my mouth went like sandpaper. Since then I will only flat them off outside in a bowl of water, polishing by hand with polywatch indoors. And yes, can still slightly smell the odour from pmma when using polywatch. More modern acrylic crystals don’t seem to give off the same odour. All materials that outgass when machined are potentially hazardous. But.. laurel bush leaves outgas cyanide. Never heard of them killing or harming. At the end of the day anything you suspect is a risk, simply mitigate the risk or avoid it totally.
 
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