Time For Some Safety Tips

I have been remiss in not mentioning safety before.

Safety is a very important thing to keep in mind when working with concrete and of course Hypertufa. Cement, you know the stuff you use to make concrete and Hypertufa contains silica. When you inhale a lot of silica particles it will affect your sinuses and lungs. this is not good.

So number one in the safety thing is use the best dust mask you can buy and wear it whenever you're mixing the dry components or sanding drilling or anything else that makes dust from the Hypertufa or concrete you are working on. This is especially important if you are making a big sculpture.

Another thing is you should wear a pair of good rubber gloves. Cement contains caustic chemicals and the gloves will protect you from them. I like the ones used for washing dishes they are pretty tough so you can get your hands right in there and not have to worry about the gloves breaking down. I tried the surgical latex ones a couple of times but most of the time they broke open and if they didn't break open when you took them off your hands look like they been in water for about 20 hours because the sweat can't get out on account of the tight fit. That's the reason I go with the dishwashing gloves.

The cement will draw the moisture from wherever it can including your skin. A good idea when you're done is to use a good hand cream. It will help you avoid this and if you want I'll recommend a product for you but I don't like to do it online because everyone will think that I'm looking for a commission. I am not not so e-mail me and ask about it really works good. I know because I have tried 50 or more creams, from budget priced to very expensive and none even came close to this stuff.

The third thing and probably just as important as the dust mask is some safety goggles. If you're going to be using power tools on your sculpture or molds or doing any carving on your Hypertufa or concrete wear safety goggles. Anything else you should do is just common sense. Wear old cloths and if you get a lot of cement powder on them I don't suggest putting in the washing machine I think you should just throw them out. That's what I do I'm afraid that the cement will wreck the washer. The other thing that a lot of people do and this really good idea is get a good back support. You know the things you see everybody at Home Depot wearing your going to be doing a lot of bending over and crouching down and the back thing may save a pain in the back the next day so go with it.

I can't think of much more to say about safety right now that in future articles if I think it's some all be sure to include it.