Tell me about respirators
 

Guys,

What do I need in terms of a respirator to survive rattle can priming for the next few years?

Dan ...

If I had a lot of painting/priming to do, personally I would use nothing but a hood or mask with a fresh air system. Period. Filtered respirators are too flaky. You have to worry about changing the filter. You have to worry about making a good seal. Have a day's worth of stubble? Your mask is useless. It must hold negative pressure if you suck in and block the vents. I'll bet very few mask users actually pass that test.

I'm only doing very occasional priming so I use a filtered mask. Just a standard painting mask from Home Depot/Lowes. It has a particulate pre filter followed by an organic vapor filter. Very standard for this sort of thing. It must be stored in an air tight container. The filter must be changed very often.

If I ever go back to a slow build kit and have a lot of painting to do, my first purchase will be a fresh air system, used or otherwise.

Work safe and stay healthy.

How about the Hobbyair system?

Hobby Air and the other dedicated fresh air systems are good but kind of limiting for quick jobs. For this reason you may tend to NOT use it for quick jobs. I have one of these:


It is a 3M 7800 Full Face respirator. It has provisions for both fresh air and filters when you are just working with rattle cans. I got mine on eBay for $120 which included fresh air connections, cartridges and other goodies. I see this place has them for $220. They come in sizes Small, Medium and Large so make sure you get the right size. You can use the cartridge filters for rattle cans and also later use it with a fresh air supply when using Polyurethane.

You should read the safety information on the can, but in most cases, rattle can primers are safe if you're wearing a carbon filter.

Another option is to spray outside and stay upwind of whatever you are spraying.

William,

How much of a problem is it with overspray getting on the face shield, and how do you get it off?

Bill Settle
-8 Wings
Winston-Salem, NC

Dan, I'm priming with a zinc chromate primer and use a regular nose/mouth respirator with 3M charcoal filters which I purchased at Home Depot. (Located in the paint department.) It works great!

Respirator Hood
 

Dan, This is what I would use from grainger and then I had a new little wet dry vack to supply fresh air. Less money then a hobby air. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/3AJ96

The face shield is made of a high quality acrylic-I think. Curiously I get over spray on the surrounding rubber that I have to clean off every now and then, but overspray has never "landed" on the the face shield. There must be some kind of coating on it. This is a great unit and even with the cartridge filters, you smell absolutely NOTHING with it on.