Avoiding saw dust, hazardous fumes, etc

[FerdBerful]

First off, this is not an advertisement. I have no relationship with maker of the product
described.

A recent health scare made me finally look into avoiding all the noxious
stuff I've been breathing while working on rockets.

Since I think a lot of people think "I should look into ..." but don't do anything
about it, I thought I'd share what I ended up doing.

I have a beard and wear glasses so the "easy" solutions have been pretty frustrating.

I got a Turbine Products Breath-Cool "Supplied Air System" (It supplies clean air from
outside your work area.)



https://www.turbineproducts.com/breathecool-ii-supplied-air-respirator-system-w-vinyl-hood/

About $490 with upgrade to 75 foot hose and tax, license, doc fees, dock fees, shipping, ...

I've used it for a few days now. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.
(More below.)

A few pictures:

The best place for me to put the air pump is outside our garage on our front porch.
The porch is covered, but the wind can blow the rain onto it so I got a tote box to put
the air pump in:



We just had a very windy, very rainy storm come through and the air pump stayed
completely dry.

I chiselled out a ~ 2" x 2" hole in the brick wall between my garage and the front porch
for the air hose and power cord:



I've hung the air hose in the rafters in the garage. In the center of the garage
I installed a ~ 2 1/2 foot long 2x4 that hangs down that I installed hooks on. This
is how I store the respirator when I'm not using it:



You can see the power strip that I'm using as as a switch so I don't have to go out
on the porch to turn the air pump on.

Impressions so far:

Despite some minor annoyances, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.

I have trouble getting hot easily (I'm "well insulated" and it was nice to have the
cool air. I didn't have any trouble seeing. The clear plastic is wide enough and is very
clear and it didn't fog up.

The minor annoyances:

- The face plate rests on my nose (lightly) I haven't spend time looking to see if there's
any way to adjust it so that it doesn't. I'm not hopeful (it pretty simple.)

- The hose is a bit unruly. The problem is with ... not sure how to describe it (I'm sure
there's a perfectly good term that I'm unaware of) but ... (torsional?) ... Ah: I want there
to be the equivalent of a few "snap swivels" along the line.

The other hose issue (related to the above) is that I have knocked a few things off the various
not very well thought out places where I've put them. This is quite fixable.

When working on rockets, I spent most of my time sitting at my desk and the hose is
a non-issue. I've use my table saw a few times and that worked fine.

I'm not sure how the system will work when it's hot. It may not be much of an issue.
My guess is that the air will feel like a fan running all the time into my face. I.e. it might
be better than the current situation with no respirator.

The company also makes a 5 gallon igloo water container type thing with coils of hose
in it. You can fill it with ice water to cool the air before it gets to you:

https://www.turbineproducts.com/cool-bucket-personal-air-cooler/

I wasn't 100% sure about the hood, but the guy said it's the most comfortable and
it's the best way to go if you have a beard and/or glasses. I went ahead with it because
I figured that if it wasn't satisfactory, I could use one of the other alternatives.

For instance, they have a "half mask" that I can use instead of or in addition to
the hood. Because of the forced air, the fit of the mask isn't too important.

There is a "quick-change" link between the hose and the hood so switching from one to
the other would be pretty easy.

Finally, I'm also finding it a bit fun to feel like a hazmat guy or an astronaut. YMMV

I'm be interest in what other people use to avoid breathing bad stuff.
What works for you? What doesn't?

 

[farsidius]

Nice find. That's really good idea and not a bad investment for your health. I keep my air mostly clean at my workbench using a blower that vents to the outside of my garage. It moves about 600 cu ft/min and has a 6" diameter flexible intake hose that I can move around my workbench. I use it when I'm sanding fiberglass/wood and when I'm painting. I still wear a particle mask when working with fiberglass.

-brant

 

[Binder Design]

I need that when machining graphite. My next move is to do it ala Frank Kosdon, outside under a covered carport with a fan blowing the dust away.

 

[FerdBerful]

...I keep my air mostly clean at my workbench using a blower that vents to the outside of my garage. It moves about 600 cu ft/min and has a 6" diameter flexible intake hose that I can move around my workbench. ...

-brant

Nice setup. Thanks for the info.

 

[patelldp]

I need that when machining graphite. My next move is to do it ala Frank Kosdon, outside under a covered carport with a fan blowing the dust away.

+1. I used a fine dust ventilator and a shop vac. I still track it everywhere.

 

[Onebadhawk]

I've looked at this unit before..
It's a great unit
There are quite a few options you can use for the mask / hood..
I definitely wouldn't go with the bucket as you could do the same thing with a cooler for a lot less..

Teddy

 

[Rex R]

I would consider some spray foam around the hose where it goes through the wall to help keep unwanted guests out of the work space.
Rex

 

[MClark]

Just breath through an unfiltered Camel cigarette

 

[soopirV]

I had a battery-powered HEPA filter with disposable hood from a previous job (autopsy technician). Didn't help with the smells (wasn't supposed to) but ostensibly kept the viruses and bacteria at bay when dealing with odd cases. Have occasionally longed for it when sanding gets rough, but figured (probably correctly) that the filter would clog within seconds. This, however, is very cool!

 

[Onebadhawk]

I would consider some spray foam around the hose where it goes through the wall to help keep unwanted guests out of the work space.
Rex

+1...

Teddy

 

[Buckeye]

Geez, the HPR subforum has really become a catch-all for off-topic posts. Mods?

 

[dr wogz]

I've recently been giving this a big consideration.. Building a "Down draught / sanding bench" I've seen a few other designs, and it is a relatively easy thing to make.. I, personally, would rather one with dedicated (pancake type) fans and a "Filtrete" type air filter rather than one that plugs into your shop vac (unless there is enough hose to put the shop vac in another room!)

https://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2009/04/10-downdraft-table-plans-and-build-notes-for-wood-shops

https://fixthisbuildthat.com/diy-downdraft-sanding-table-box/

https://www.manmadediy.com/users/david/posts/3742-make-this-diy-downdraft-sanding-table

 

[JohnCoker]

Thanks for posting all this info! Regular respirators are uncomfortable and dust masks are useless.

There are two major categories of units: "supplied air" (which brings in air from outside) and "air purifying" (PAPR, which filters the air with a body-mounted unit.) I use a 3M PAPR unit.

Both have a variety of styles (partial face mask, full face mask, hood) and both are comfortable for extended wear. The benefits of supplied air are that you never have to worry about a filter and you don't have to recharge a battery-powered unit. The benefit of PAPR is that you don't have a hose trailing behind you that limits mobility.

 

[rharshberger]

Thanks for posting all this info! Regular respirators are uncomfortable and dust masks are useless.

There are two major categories of units: "supplied air" (which brings in air from outside) and "air purifying" (PAPR, which filters the air with a body-mounted unit.) I use a 3M PAPR unit.

Both have a variety of styles (partial face mask, full face mask, hood) and both are comfortable for extended wear. The benefits of supplied air are that you never have to worry about a filter and you don't have to recharge a battery-powered unit. The benefit of PAPR is that you don't have a hose trailing behind you that limits mobility.

+1, I use these items nearly daily at work, usually scba setups, but MSA paprs and hoods are very common too.

 

[farsidius]

Thanks for posting all this info! Regular respirators are uncomfortable and dust masks are useless.

There are two major categories of units: "supplied air" (which brings in air from outside) and "air purifying" (PAPR, which filters the air with a body-mounted unit.) I use a 3M PAPR unit.

Both have a variety of styles (partial face mask, full face mask, hood) and both are comfortable for extended wear. The benefits of supplied air are that you never have to worry about a filter and you don't have to recharge a battery-powered unit. The benefit of PAPR is that you don't have a hose trailing behind you that limits mobility.

I really like the versatility and freedom you get from one of these PAPR systems. I may have to keep an eye out for a "sale". Even discounted, it looks like a system runs $900-1200.

 

[The_Lone_Beagle]

I am seriously considering something like this, but for right now I'm having success using a half face piece respirator
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MCUT86/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

They are cheap enough that I have 2, one dedicated to filtering out particles and one dedicated to vapors. The disadvantages to this are obvious, it doesn't cover my whole head, and at times my glasses slip off.

But for right now, this is definitely better than nothing. I'm surprised sometimes at the stuff I did as a kid, before we knew that we needed to have any of this protection.

 

[FerdBerful]

RE:

Just breath through an unfiltered Camel cigarette

Why didn't I think of that? That way the lung cancer will get me before the silicosis
or hypersensitivity pneumonitis bother me.

 

[FerdBerful]

I am seriously considering something like this, but for right now I'm having success using a half face piece respirator
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MCUT86/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

They are cheap enough that I have 2, one dedicated to filtering out particles and one dedicated to vapors. The disadvantages to this are obvious, it doesn't cover my whole head, and at times my glasses slip off.

But for right now, this is definitely better than nothing. I'm surprised sometimes at the stuff I did as a kid, before we knew that we needed to have any of this protection.

I'm totally with you WRT any effort is worth doing. The best can be the enemy of the good.

I'd probably would have stayed with something like that if my beard didn't get in the way of a good seal.
I've also had problems with rouge glasses.

And given that I believe that you can always find something good in any situation, I guess the beard/glasses "problem"
led to a very effective solution to the "breathing nasties" problem.

 

[FerdBerful]

Geez, the HPR subforum has really become a catch-all for off-topic posts. Mods?

I'm sorry. I did think about where to post it. My thinking was that the people that build HPR are by far the most likely to be breathing
the most harmful stuff.

 

[FerdBerful]

I would consider some spray foam around the hose where it goes through the wall to help keep unwanted guests out of the work space.
Rex

A good thing to think about.

However, in my case it would be moot. Our garage has all sorts gaps in it's ancient sliding door. And well, we leave the back
door open all the time.

 

[rocketsam2016]

I live in the city (no garage or basement) in New England (cold, snow, early sunset), so I have fewer options. I wear a good half mask respirator with a p100 particle filter and an organic chemical filter. I can't smell things like spray paint or lacquer thinner at all through it. I've been sanding fiberglass in a closed bathroom in the bathtub wearing that mask and running an exhaust fan that vents to outside. I've been trying to wet sand as well to minimize the fiberglass dust in the air. It's a royal pain but beats spreading fiberglass dust through the house or sanding in the snow... I epoxy though out in the open in the bottom floor of my house.

 

[rms]

Oh my, must ...... resist ...... commenting:grin:

 

[rocketsam2016]

Oh my, must ...... resist ...... commenting:grin:

Let me know if you'd like photographic evidence lol. Though I'm not in the tub, only the rocket is

 

[FerdBerful]

I ended up buying the half-mask. This is what I'm using most of the time.

The problem with the hood for me was the fact that the face plate was
resting on my noise a bit. That was fine from a comfort standpoint, but
what got old was the cleaning the face plate every time I put it on.

I have used the hood since I got the half-mask. I've found that cyanoacrylate
fumes often sting my eyes. The hood totally eliminates that problem.

 

[mpitfield]

I recently stepped up the protection from a half mask to a full face mask, the 3M FF-400 series. I had the same epiphany and decided that it was not worth any perceived savings, even if I was only being exposed infrequently to anything that may be a health risk. I do not have any facial hair and have only used it a handful of times, however it does work well, stays cool, no fogging, and is very comfortable to wear, at least for the few hours that I have worn it.

And my nose is nowhere near the lens.