Newbie?? Dog in the shop?

winmagfrog

winmagfrog

Joined
Nov 16, 2005
Messages
1,150
So, I'm starting to turn my garage into a shop and I have to share it with my pooch...
My question is this- will the residual dust from the micarta, G10, Steel etc.. Be harmful to him? I know the bulk of my dust stays in one spot about 15 feet from his bed and I keep it fairly clean in there. He normally scrams when the machinery is on, but I wonder if it is bad juju for him to be around it long term.

What do you guys think? I know the majority of us on this forum have dogs!

While I'm asking... I just wear a little dust mask (like the anti-flu people wear) while I'm working on the grinder, is that enough? If not, what should I be wearing?

Thanks guys!
 
Micarta is not good for you and it will not be good for the dog as well. It can kill him in time. I would not leave him in there. But its your dog. Think about it. My dog is out in back of the house now died. :yawn:
 
If it's bad for you it will not be much better for the pooch. The dust mask is better than nothing but a welding type mask or similar is much better. I found when using the dust masks that I had a black trace leading from the edge of the mask to my nose. Not a good enough seal.

Chuck
 
Many of the knifemaking materials are a hazard to your health and the dogs(he breathes the same air as you) a dust or particle mask just doesn't give the protection you need .What you need is a respirator mask..
 
Get a rated mask at lowes or something, those paper mask are good for light things, your dog will die from the dust, he also could get you hurt should he bump you while you are working on the grinder or something like that.

Unless he is really smart and knows how to cut stuff on the band saw:) then get him a mask and make him earn his bones.

Spencer
 
I might just be trying to get the answer I want to hear.. But, if he's not in there when I'm working and stays pretty well away from the tools and such, is it still bad?

I hope not, cause the dog's not going anywhere... And I don't think the wife will let me move a grinder into our bedroom....
 
Move the dog into the bed room! :D
A knife shop is hard to keep clean and is usually covered with crud from grinding and sanding nasty materials!
If you can afford it, get a good dust collector and hook it up to all your tools. Also get a good shop vac and broom and clean the shop every day!
 
I need to relay a story from many years ago when I was first getting into knifemaking. I was in an individual's shop, who had a poodle that was ALWAYS in the shop. That particular day, he was showing me the ins and outs of working with MOP. We had been grinding pearl all morning, and we had on respirators. When lunchtime rolled around, we headed for the shop door and he called to the dog, which was laying under a bench on the other side of the shop....the dog didn't move, and he yelled for it again....still no movement. He walked over and was horrified when he found the dog dead! Our lessons ended for that day. Later that evening he called me and told me that he had taken the dog's body into a vet friend to see what had happened. The vet said that the dog had had basically drowned in it own blood (the inside of its lungs were cut to shreds for the pearl dust). So the advice of what bad for you and me is certainly bad for a dog. Now I don't know if the dog died from what we had been doing that day, or it had taken its toll over time, but I do know that dog was dead.

That being said, I would not know what to do without my dogs in the shop. I have a "doggie" door under a bench, which leads outside into their pen. Whenever I'm gona be doing something that might be harmful, they get run outside and the doggie door gets closed. Its not only me that needs to be in the shop, my Lab (Hammer), thinks he's being punished if he doesn't get to go to the shop with me each morning! Besides, who else can we turn to when we goof something up and need consoling? :)
 
I have a big ol' monster possum that tries to waltz past me to get to the dog food when I have the shop door open. Maybe I should grind some MOP. If I am real tuned into working on the lathe, mill or grinder he can make the run and then I nudge him out with my foot. It has turned into sort of a red light/green light game.:cool:
 
Buy a good respirator for yourself, move the dog away from the shop unless you get some sort of fancified doggy respirator. Not to belabor the point but everything we use in knifemaking is hazardous to our health so wear a respirator. I was grinding in my shop one day ( I wear shorts most of the time) and my dog came up for some reason and licked my leg. I have yet to find that knife.

Will
Formerly known as badbamaump
 
I don't even like letting my dog into my shop. There's always something he could be stepping into, something sharp, small, metal, etc. Plus his hearing would be shot if he didn't wear saftey equiptment. Huh? WHat? I might be moving around with a sharpened piece of steel, trying to get a better view in the light, and skewer him if he was in there too.

I remember one time my shop was a mess, steel dust and grinder dust on everything (didn't keep it clean in those days). It stays in the air too for awhile by the way. I was showing my work area to a doctor friend of mine, and at the time didn't wear a mask. I said to him "Yah think I should be wearing a mask?" (Duhh) He looked at the crap on everything and touched the fine black dust, then looked at me like I was In. Sane.

Dust mask with niosh respirator at the least, hardware stores carry them. I doubt there's any difference between how bad one residual dust is versus the other, they're all bad. Although I have been specifically warned about silica sand and dust from anything that came from an animal (not counting leather).
 
Hey Winmagfrog, I just made the switch from dust mask to respirator myself and noticed that my snot turned back to normal color. I wonder what our lungs look like?
 
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