what to do: "metal allergy"?

That was my first thought (after wildly metastasizing cancer), but I haven't worked on that for almost a week, and imagine the coverage on my skin would be greater--I was cutting it on a bandsaw. The worst of the skin rash is along the index finger and thumb of both hands, and more rash on my arms and sides, upper chest, etc. (i.e., scratching put it there.) Nothing on the face, though (don't like to scratch my face when my hands are mucky.) This coincides with my method of pressing down on the spring steel sheet against sandpaper on a surface plate, and against an oilstone.

I'm not shutting out the possibility that it is the cocobolo, or something else. When I have some way of controlling the reaction I'll try limited exposure to each. Or wait until my insurance is "upgraded" so I don't have to pay the $3k deductible I found out I'm saddled with.

But if my skin starts sloughing off or growing extra limbs and hair I'm going back to the cancer hypothesis. :)

er

You must be crazy. You know how much real doctors cost? Besides, real metalworkers do their own work, no matter what the discipline. Why, an old x-ray from a dendist's office makes a great tool for seeing what ails you. If you only have old, hard to expose x-ray film, then get a surplus x-ray machine of the type for inspecting welds. Those will expose the film even if it's across the room. No need to press the offending limb tight against the film holder. Even better, I heard that if you use a dead computer monitor instead of film you can have your own flouroscope. ERS

Yeah, I'd agree right away but my condition doesn't really follow the pathology...

er

Isn't cocobolo dust a well-known allergen? I heard this from a (musical) instrument maker.

Jon

Was that the first time you have done significant work on cocobolo? If so, this is classic! Last week was your first exposure, and it sensitized your immune system. You had no noticeable reaction at the time, but your immune system prepared itself for the next time. Your bandsaw is now FULL of the dust, and anything you cut on that saw will get covered in it. (Your clothes may have also picked up some of it, and even retained some of it through the wash.) Now, this week, you are working with stuff that has cocobolo dust on it, and you get a strong reaction.

If you continue to have a bad reaction to whatever it is, and it is clearly allergic, try to get some Fluocinonide (prescription). It is amazing stuff. We got poison ivy spread to all our clothes through the wash, and we all looked like ripe raspberries! That stuff just shut off the reaction pronto.

Does anyone know if the cocobolo irritation is caused by an oil like poison ivy's urushiol? That stuff is hard to get out of clothes and off soft surfaces.

Jon

Well, now I have to find out and report, because I'm thinking it's the metal (for reasons clarified elsewhere.)

er

This post and Eddie's are my favorites in this thread. :)

My suggestion: set your shop vac outside and borrow or buy enough hose to vacuum your shop out.

I got nickel allergy from my wire rim glasses, had it for years and years and only right where the metal touched my skin was irritated.

Talked to the "meteorite" jewelery making guys about it, they had the same. Got titanium frames now and it's great, no more itchy face. :) Also I can work with (not wear) nickel silver all day with no problems (so far;).

The wood dust got in your shirt and settled at the waist band?

The one thing that's sure about wood is, they are all toxic to some extent, just some more than others. Certain ones like cocobolo, ebony and lignum vitae have a little something extra tho?

Alvin in AZ

In the good old days television rectifier valves made very good X-ray generators provided you kept the duty cycle low enough to not melt the anodes.

DAMHIKT

Mark Rand RTFM

For years I thought that Marie Curie died from cancer caused by radiation exposure from her experiments and investigations of radium. Only recently did I learn that the cancer was caused by x-ray exposure. If I remember correctly she was constantly checking the x-ray strength by exposing her hand and film to the x-rays and would check the picture to see if the strength and exposure time were proper. This lead eventually to cancer in that arm. It was amputated but the cancer had by this time spread and it killed her. Though it amazes me now that people would be so cavalier with x-radiation it should be no surprise really. Imagine how amazed people were back then that this form of light, which was invisible to us, would pass clean through us as if we were glass. And the dismay when it was discovered how damaging x-rays could be to living tissue and all sorts of people had been exposed to levels that were only then known to cause cancer. ERS

On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 15:13:53 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Pete C." quickly quoth:

Yeah, it really gets the gossip going, doesn't it?

.-. Life is short. Eat dessert first! ---

NoteSHADES(tm) laptop privacy/glare guards

How about the shoe store x-ray machines. They really gave you a dose.

T

They get mentioned too.

If you can find it somewhere read "Double Exposure" the history of X-Rays.

Scarier than Stephen King.

Richard

It's probably the cocobolo dust, the oil in it causes allergic reactions in a lot of folks. Rosewood does the same to folks, too. I had similar reactions after making a rosewood tip and pistol grip cap for a rifle stock, took several weeks for the rash to subside. One time I was glad I'd worn a dust mask when sawing and sanding the stuff. If you didn't wear any dust protection, you can expect sinus and lung problems, too. There's several other tropical hardwoods that cause similar reactions due to the oils they contain.

Stan

A while back i asked a question on the ATLAS Yahoo group about turning wood on a machine too. when it was mentioend the wet wood can eat itself into the bed ways and do visible damage within hours it was the BEST example and case i'd ever seen for woodshop dust collection and a VERY GOOD lesson about how causetic some of it actually is

Since hearing that i've gravitated towards hand tools and working outside. I like woodwork but the BIGGEST reason i do it sparingly is that i'm allergic to it and i'm NOT allergic to metals

so >>>> Sorry to hear that.

Cocobolo is a member of the same family as poison oak. It's legendary amongst musical instruments makers as a problem, both for the maker and the player. There were a bunch of high end wooden flutes made in the

80's and 90's from cocobolo that looked great but caused serious allergy problems on lips and fingers of players.

These days cocobolo is mostly used for things like bagpipe drones which the player isn't in continuous contact with.

Why bother to use it at all? Because it's a gorgeous looking wood and tough as most engineering plastics. I've machined it and it's better behaved than Delrin. When you're done finishing, kick the lathe up to high speed, pick up an handful of chips and polish it. The finish looks about a mile deep. Amazingly beautiful wood, just nasty as hell.

There are several other woods that are a problem, ebony for one. In general, before you start using an exotic wood, make sure you don't react. Most fruit and nut woods are ok, if you aren't allergic to the kind of nut (I've got a friend that is allergic to walnuts and has to wear an air helmet to stay away from the dust). Wood dust of all kinds is a low level carcinogen, so don't breath it if you don't have to.

Jim

Yeah, and guess where that expoure WAS? Right in the gonads! Pow!

Jon

Oh, yeah, you'll get a GREAT exposure with 7 MeV gamma rays from a pipe inspection betatron or Co 60. You'll hardly even notice those flimsy bones, as gammas of that energy will go through ten feet of lead.

Jon

Right. If you've got an unusual thing going on, like a cocobolo reaction, chances are your doc has never encountered or heard of such a thing. If you ask a bunch of DIY'ers who deal with various woods and so on, chances are much better someone will have heard of it. Did we diagnose the guy? Nope, but his symptoms are consistant with an exposure of the type we discussed.

Some of us are licensed medical practicioners, by the way, of one sort or another. Just because a guy plays with metalworking tools as a hobby doesn't mean they don't have a license in their pocket saying they understand another field. (ahem.)

Right. And tell 'em about the cocobolo, first.

Exactly. Blind faith in your doctor is rarely a good way to proceed. If I had a doc who did the "I'm the doctor, you're the patient, I'll tell you what the deal is" crap, I'd change docs. If a doc feels threatened by me asking specific questions about his diagnosis and decisions, he can get over it.

There ya go.

See? I was right. You don't even need to be close to the x-ray machine. Not only that, if you have any metal plates in ya they won't block the radiation gettin' to the bone. ERS