Wood allergies - time to allergic reaction?

Stacy (ithink) has talked about PAPR systems in the past. Seems most of them require you wear a belt with filter and motor. Are there any such systems that have a long enough supply hose that you can walk around a (smallish) shop and have the heavier motor/filter just sit on a table somewhere?
 
C Cushing H. I know they make big industrial units that have a long hose that mounts on the ceiling and you just walk around pulling the house with you... Don't know how much those cost or where to get them, but I've seen pictures!
 
An umbilical unit is a pretty good way to have clean air in a small shop. Look for supplied air systems.

One I can recommend is the Breath-Cool supplied air system. Price is very reasonable. It comes with a gas-mask type hood, but you can adapt it to a PAPR respirator helmet like most of us use. You can use it with a Speed-Gas welders hood, a PAPR helmet, or a full paint booth shroud hood, or a meth lab full pharmaceutical suit.
Place the blower and filters in a clean area and run the hose into the dirty shop. Wire a switch from the shop to a socket that the unit plugs into. The hoses are a bit stiff, but you can add a 10-foot section of lighter PAPR type hose at the end you hook up to. This unit is a bit noisy in your hood because of the blowers, but that is something you can get used to or modify.
One simple modification is to get rid of those long stiff hoses and plumb the whole manifold to the shop in 2" PVC pipe. Have it come out in the shop ceiling where the bench is and reduce the manifold pipe to 1.25" (or whatever size your hood's flex-hose will fit on) and put a gate valve on the air outlet so you can shut it off when not using it. Connect a 10-foot light weight and flexible PAPR hose from the air manifold to you hood. You can put a Tee in the manifold and plug in two umbilical hoses if you regularly have another person in the shop.
 
Some Brazilian woods like pau ferro e aroeira will cause an allergic reaction on me but it is usually just sore eyes and an endless series of sneezes. Not enogh for not working with them if they come my way fortunatelly.
 
I really like rosewood but the dust that comes from the processing turns me into a snail that leaves slime everywhere!:cool:
 
BTW, you can use a regular PAPR and a long hose or join two hoses together. I set my Breathe Easy on a cart behind the grinder and have a 10-foot hose to the hood. I can walk about 10 feet in any direction that way. Look in eBay. They regularly have someone selling a box of new hoses for stupid cheap.
A piece of PVC as a connector and some clamps make two or three hoses a long hose.
 
Whenever I'm grinding something dangerous I do it under a high volume of coolant and do most of my shaping that way... Doesn't help with hand Sanding though but it cuts dust way down. That and a 3m TR600 with the highest rated filter they provide.
 
"Afterwards I went for a beer," I'm surprised no one else caught or mentioned this. Maybe your allergic to the hops in the beer. To be safe PM me and send any left over beer to me to for proper disposal. lol
 
"Afterwards I went for a beer," I'm surprised no one else caught or mentioned this. Maybe your allergic to the hops in the beer. To be safe PM me and send any left over beer to me to for proper disposal. lol
That would me much worse then to stop working with exotic woods. Wood allergy would be a shame, beer allergy a tragedy :)
 
I had a book that i think it is Know Your Woods by Albert Constantine. This was 40+ years ago. I seem to remember reading that the cocobolo is in the same family as poison ivy. If I handle cocobolo, the skin on my hands will peel a little. I don't mess with it any more.
 
Problem is, so many really nice woods have sensitzing issues: cocobolo, generic “rosewood”, african blackwood, kingwood (i love that stuff), and to a lesser extent: bocote, ironwood and bocote. Just got to be generally careful..

Has anyone any info on whether bog oak is sensitizing? Im thinking of using it instead of blackwood on wa handle bolsters and butts…
 
I am reporting back that even after intentionally rubbing cocobolo dust on the back of my hand there was no reaction. I will put it down to the (old) creme, probably some preservatives that went bad.
I will be more careful for sure.
 
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