I was wondering what everyone was using for filtration. I know a Good mask, maybe even a large box filter suspended from the ceiling to move and filter air throughout the shop would be good.
Right now i am running a good cartridge mask, and a shopvac for all wood and other dust that isnt hot. I have a catch trough and duct running to a water bucket for grinding steel but thats just a gravity setup with no suction. My plan is to build a water bath filter/spark trap for hot grinding, but currently i dont have an air source that will provide enough flow to make that happen. One cheap and easy thing that i have seen done is running an old box fan with a furnace filter taped to each side. One way or another i have to do something soon because the wife is going to kill me if i dont cut down on the dust pretty quick. I am going to look for a very large shop vac this weekend to run my water bath, or possibly a dust collection blower of some sort even. I checked princess auto but they didnt have anything last time i was there.
I used to use a cartridge mask but I wear glasses and they tend to get fogged up. And being a guy with a beard, the seal isn't what it ought to be. A couple years ago, I switched to a Trend AirShield and am really happy with that. It not only filters the air you breathe, but also provides full face protection and optional hearing protection. The only downside I've found is that it does add a small amount of weight to your head -- enough that if you're standing at the grinder with your head tipped down for a long time, it can become a pain in the neck (literally). I've learned to take short breaks and all is well. While that works great for me, if does little for the rest of the shop. As I wrote in another post, I can't use a dust collector on my grinder because it sits too far back on the bench and I don't have the space to move the bench out far enough. I am considering one of those ceiling boxes because the shop is also the garage, and my wife has bad allergies. I'm just not sure how much it will help.
In a previous life... I sold a lot of equipment mostly to woodworkers... The ceiling box fans are quite effective in reducing the very light airborne dust. The key is keeping the filters clean. I found that for most of these boxes you could go to a heating & ventilation supplier and buy furnace filters (which is the primary filter in these boxes anyway) much cheaper than purchasing the replacement filters from the tool supplier.
No... sorry... I don't deal in that range of equipment anymore. Try any of the larger lumber yards or tool companies like KMS Tools.
Although... since we are talking about respiratory protection...I do sell the filter cartridges for the face masks for North, 3M, & US Safety
I was just talking to uline today for the 3m 7000 series, for half mask they want 34 bucks, for the full face they want 464 bucks.. holy heck.
Try this for a 3M full face... go to www.skookumtools.com/catalogue and search this part # KB356900 We have the 3M 6000 series Half Mask on at $13.45... just search: 6000 Series Half Mask
