Am I being over-cautious? (I don't think so...)

If you look at the Thingiverse home page you will see the following 'thing' at the number 1 spot.

Filament joiner

This gadget works by the user pushing the 2 filament ends into a length of PTFE tube, then heating that tube with a flame. Now many here will know that PTFE tube will start to give off extremely poisonous fumes at temperatures about 200C - and the higher you go the worse it gets - and you have to get to somewhere around that temperature to weld PLA (higher with other materials). It is not possible to control how hot that tubing will get with a naked flame.

I raised this issue in the comments (as have quite a few others) but all negative comments have either been drowned out or deleted. I have also reported the issue to Thingiverse, but have had no response. Quite a few thousand people think it's a wonderful design...

Am I in the wrong or is this a disaster waiting to happen?

[www.theplasticshop.co.uk]

3.1 The primary hazard associated with these polymers is the inhalation of fumes from overheating or
burning Heating PTFE above 300 degrees C may liberate a fine particulate fume

I have read in various places that PTFE tube will start to give off these gases at around 205C. It just gets much worse at 300C.

... if you have some birds in the same room - they will quit around 200degC ... humans are much more resistant

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Looks like this item has been de-listed, thankfully.

The link above still works, but it no longer comes up in the Thingiverse 'most popular' listings (it was top), nor does it appear in searches.

I hate to put down other people's designs, but that was just dangerous.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2022 12:41PM by David J.