Need respirator after grinding?

C

cjensema

Joined
Dec 29, 1998
Messages
288
My shop is a one-car garage and the air gets pretty dusty in winter when I grind with the doors closed. The air SEEMS clean about 5 minutes after I finish grinding, but I'm not sure. How long do I need to wait after I finish grinding before I can take off my respirator? (I don't have an air cleaner system.) In other words, how long does steel and micarta dust hang in the air?
 
I got the same situation. Just raise the door and use a small fan for a couple of minutes-when it gets heavy, it works for me-Dan
 
In Bob Loveless's book, it says that the dust can stay for hours. I keep the respirator on for more than two hours after I'm done grinding handle material, and I leave the garage door open so fresh air can get in to replace the bad air. Even 6 hours after I'm done grinding, if I need to get something from the garage, I hold the respirator to my face when I go get it.
 
How many of you guys use them? What are the good ones? Can I buy a $40.00 Craftsman and be OK or is it more complicated than that?

Sorry, I'm new.

jmx
 
I've got a special vacuum cleaner,a VERY powerful one, with a power outlet for tools that kicks in automatically when I use the tool.
I found that it sucks up almost everything produced by drills or hacksaws. I grind by hand using files and two glass blocks covered ith sandpaper as sanding blocks (they granta *perfectly* flat grinding surface).
I guess if this would be enough with a belt grinder...
Anybody used such an arrangement to reduce airborne particles?
 
I have a air cleaner that filters 99.5% of the particles 6 -8 times per hour in my shop. It hangs from the ceiling. Look in wood working catalogs for one. Mine was $175. About the same price as the first visit to the doctor.
 
I am using a one car garage too. I am about to buy a resporator from home depot, the kind that you can replace the filters in, it looks like a small gas mask. I hope that this will work fine if not can someone please tell me I don't want to get sick. Thanks.
 
Always, always, always wear a respirator in the shop...

It really doesn't get clear of dust unless you vacuum it all up. Even the next day when you walk in you are kicking up dust from the day before. A respirator is cheap insurance and you don't need to buy anything expensive. The $30-40 kind are fine. One easy and relatively cheap air cleaner can be made by using one of those 20" square area fans and taping a 20" x 20" furnace filter over the input side with some duct tape. It's a $20 version of the $175 filter system above. You'll be amazed at how dirty that filter gets in a short time. That was what you were going to breathe without a mask.
 
Something else you can do which is cheap and easy although I would not swear to its effectiveness in the case of a metal shop is to adopt the potter's habit of misting the air after working to settle the dust. It works well in the pottery studio where the air is constantly filled with airborne clay particles being stirred up as Jerry says, everytime you walk through the room. Using a simple mister bottle you can bring a lot of that dust right out of the air and make it settle to the floor. I always notice a dramatic difference in the visible dust level when I do it and can feel it when I breathe too. Of course, it's the microscopic dusts that we should be most concerned about.....that's where the air filters come in.
 
you have it peter, it's the stuff you can't that destroys your lungs. i have the 3m 6000 or 6600 with the filters that are rated for spray painting. about 40 bucks.
 
I own a 3M 6200 (6100/6300 should be the same, just different size). I think it works great, though the North 7700 (I think that's the model number) is slightly more comfortable. Make sure when you buy your respirator, that it is a respirator that you can get replacement cartridges and filters for. To the best of my knowledge, you need more than just the vapor cartidges to be safe. You have to be able to filter out particles as well, so you would want either a combination cartridge, or a vapor cartridge with particulate pre-filters attached to it.
 
Great thread!
I just bought my 3M 6000 series mask with Organic Vapor and P100 filters after reading CHANG's excellent reply to my respirator question.
BTW I posted a new thread last night regarding formaldehyde fumes. In short 3M warned to wear gas proof goggles in addition to a properly rated respirator/filter combo. Does anyone do this when working with Micarta?
 
AD, did you get the P100/Organic Vapor combination cartridge? If it's a OV cartridge alone, make sure you get a couple 501 retainers and some N95 or P95 prefilters. I always thought the P100 was overkill, I rarely use my P100 filter and usually go with the OV cartridge with N95 prefilter over it.
 
Chang,
I got the Organic Vapor filters, the N95 prefilters and prefilter retainers. I also bought one 2 pak of P100's but not the P100/Organic Vapor combo cartridge. Do the P100's fit as a prefilter like the N95's or do I have to get the combo cartridge if I want the P100 and Organic Vapor protection?
 
Alarion, using a dust collecting system with 4" pipe, here which separates solids into a drum. Find it gets most of the steel dust from grinding but not all. Some stuff seems to carry around on the belt and varies by speed, belt type and metal. Non-stainless and high speed are the worst but some of this stock is much bigger than knives maybe accounting for this.

I wear a mask filtering both vapor and dust. The outside particle filter shows accumulation of steel dust after a few hours use.

Looking and lusting, at a big commercial grinder in another shop, using a 6x132" belt, only a small area exposed for grinding, the entire belt was enclosed and air pulled thru a cyclone separator before exhausting outside. Probably a better solution to picking up more or all dust at the source.
 
Originally posted by R Dannemann
Looking and lusting, at a big commercial grinder in another shop, using a 6x132" belt, only a small area exposed for grinding, the entire belt was enclosed and air pulled thru a cyclone separator before exhausting outside. Probably a better solution to picking up more or all dust at the source.
Click to expand...

Woah! 6x132"? Isn't that like an edge sander or something? I was considering getting an edge sander instead of 2x72" Grizzly but I ended up getting the 2x72" anyway. Does an edge sander grind blades OK?
 
Originally posted by R Dannemann
Alarion, using a dust collecting system with 4" pipe, here which separates solids into a drum. Find it gets most of the steel dust from grinding but not all. Some stuff seems to carry around...

...Looking and lusting, at a big commercial grinder in another shop, using a 6x132" belt, only a small area exposed for grinding, the entire belt was enclosed and air pulled thru a cyclone separator before exhausting outside. Probably a better solution to picking up more or all dust at the source.
Click to expand...

WOW!
Sounds GREAT! :)
Anyway, as said, I do much of my work with files, so no hi-speed abarsive around :)
Anyway, when I abrade dangerous materials, as some plastics, or when spraying paint, I always use teh vacuum cleaner AND the respirator...
I've got just a couple of lungs, and they must last me at least another 50 years :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top