Joerg said:
Hey Folks,
So I finally have to suggest a lacing cord method to a client, for a
while, until they can have custom fasteners made. There's lots of wax in
th MIL stuff which sticks to your fingers. Are there any possible health
issues that come to mind? Allergies maybe? I am not aware of any and
have personally used it a lot, just inquiring.
Wax is pretty inert stuff - although the human body can develop
allergies to almost anything. It has been used in the radio and
television business for years without any major problems arising. The
wax can make fingers and clothing a bit messy; it is difficult to wash
off with just soap.
The easiest way of cutting nylon lacing cord, if you are a one-man-band,
is to grab the soldering iron and melt it. That releases a lot of wax
vapour and nylon smoke, which might be a problem to anyone with
breathing difficulties or asthma. In a production line situation it
would be easy to make sure that a pair of sharp scissors was available
and the soldering irons were somewhere else, so that particular problem
should not arise.
The most likely cause of injury is a thin-skinned operator pulling the
cord too tight and cutting his/her fingers. Gloves are not a sensible
option because they make this sort of fine work very difficult and they
sometimes *do* cause allergies. It is easy to pull the cord tight with
a small pair of long-nosed pliers with rounded backs to the jaws; the
cord is gripped in the jaws and then taken a couple of turns around both
closed jaws before pulling hard.
Hope this helps.