Ask Slashdot: How To Safely Saw Up Motherboards?

James-NSC writes "I like to do arts and crafts. I've been saving up motherboards for a while as a new medium and I started working on it last night. I wore the same gear I wear while painting – fine particulate respirator and safety goggles. I just cut some templates out of some motherboards and when I was done I used the shop-vac to clean myself & workspace up before removing my mask. Even after 5+ minutes, in a well ventilated area (not as well as it should have been apparently) my first breath was pins and needles. I'm looking into containment and exhaust solutions – ala baby's first iron lung, but seriously, am I nuts? Are these materials just too toxic to work with?"

Comments

Re:Treat it like fiberglass or asbestos

[Hungus]

Better yet use a wet saw and keep water running over it the entire time. Then you can filter the water but particulates should never become airborne and so you will never inhale them. You should also be wearing thick non porous gloves what handling them and make certain any think you work with is lead free if you plan on making jewelry out of it.

Re:Treat it like fiberglass or asbestos

[Shadyman]

Indeed. The Shop Vac doesn't have filtration anywhere near what is required for fiberglass particulate. All it likely did was fill the air with whatever the shop vac sucked up.