Good point Brian, but not easy to do.
If a hobbist could afford a downdraft booth that would help, but without that, its put a bigger fan in and a extra large filtration system, and then really suck the fumes out.
But that won't work because them you are bringing in extra dirt and a lot of air blowing over the spray is not goood either.
What we have here is a lot of hobbists painting at home, fumes, bondo dust etc.
Until somebody comes up with a practical way to get these fumes out, we need to know how to deal with them safely.
Any hobbist that is painting at home needs to educate himself on how to deal with these death chambers, a strong word by Brian, but very true.
I will give it my best shot here, and hopefully others can add or detract, and sort it out one more time.
So lets address the fumes, not how to get rid of them, but how to deal with them safely.
This is long, and I will repeat and copy and paste some other stuff I have put on this and other car forums, so here goes.
respirators and supplied air
This is all for information, it is not to be taken as expert advice.
I worked in several nuclear power plants and have used half, full face, negative pressure, positive pressure, including supplied air, scba, and battery operated respirators.
I am just relating my experience, and am not in any way suggesting anyone should go by what I am putting out here.
On occasin I get emails about the supplied air setup I have, so rather then answer each individual question, I will try to give you an overall view of respirators etc.
I worked about 18 years in power plants, and each plant will put you through a training session, there all pretty much the same, but I stayed in the same one for 15 years, and I was taught how to operate a fit booth for various respirators, also issued respirators for different types of invironments.
When you buy a respirator from your body shop supplier, or wherever, remember these guys sell paint and some sell auto parts also.
So pay attention to what type of resp. you are buying and it's intended purpose, you should read what the manufacture says on the respirator and the filters you get with it. Take the time and check it out, look at the expiration dates, these were put on there for a reason, very important.
I'm only giving you basic information here.
Take the respirator out of the package and put it on, cover up the filter inlet with the palm of your hand, and breathe in, it should suck the respirator tight to your face with no inleakage at all. If it leaks a little try a different size, get one that fits your face.
This is what you call the seal.
When we issued respirators at the power plant, sometimes on a daily basis, before you could even be issued one you had to have had some respirator training.
If you didn't shave that morning, you knew better then to even ask, so clean shaven is the key, you might get a seal with an end of the day stubble on your face, but you could break that seal while you're working and not even know it.
Excessive talking and squinting is one of the easiest way to break the seal and allow outside air into your respirator, so keep the talking and facial movement to aminimum.
You see them on television painting with a respirator, these are usually down draft booths with excellent air flow, your hobby shop is a little different environment, usually a lot more fumes, and you can bet these are the top of the line respirators there using.
Heres some on supplied air. There is a big difference in supplied air and scba (self contained breathing apparatus). The scba can be worn in an oxygen deficient atmosphere, supplied air should never be worn in this atmosphere
Respirators, supplied air, scba all have protection factors. I'm not going into all of that.
Supplied air can be used with a half or full face respirator or a hood.
I use a sas system, and I don't care what system you buy, this one works good, but it's a few years old, there are other name brands out there, probably one as good as the other.
I use the hood with my supplied air, for a couple of reasons, one is I have been in a full face respirator hooked up to supplyied air on many occasions, and i don't like to have my chin floating in my own sweat over a four hour period, I have worn all types of respirators.
The paper hood is lighter, cooler on your face, don't have to shave, they are nice to use. You can talk and squint and you don't have to worry about breaking your seal.
Use caution when placing your supplied air pump, remember it's sucking in the air that you will be breathing, like no cars running around it, mines in a back room in my house and I can tell what were having for supper.
This is just a little basic overview, some of our body shop experts have put out some real good informatioin on respirators, it wouldn't hurt to look up some of there threads before you start painting or have a lot of rust and filler in the air.
On my web site you will see the air pump for my supplied air system, we had environmental air samplers where i used to work, and we learned how to maintain and repair this same type of air pump, there heavy and can be moved to wherever you want to, I usually leave mine where it is, it is okay with up to 100' of hose.
I've used it a lot, and never had a problem.
If you buy a supplied air outfit with the hood, the hoods are made of a thicker type paper and are strong but light. They scratch easy on the face piece, so buy a bunch of extra films that stick over the face piece, then a hood will last quite a long time.
I wear levis, a tee shirt and sweatshirt and buy the cheaper paper suits at building supply places or your body shop place, vinyl or rubber gloves taped to the paper suit with the hood just tucked inside the paper suit and zipped up tight.
Take care of your respirators, and supplied air and lines and pump, these are the best tools you will ever buy for this kind of work, keep them boxed or wrapped up, but keep them clean.
Heres more.
Lets look at fumes in your garage, and airborne radioactivity in a nuclear power plant. Two different types of airborne contaminats, but yet present the same problem.
A nuclear power plant has some of the best engineered systems known to man to control them and keep them out of the environment and they do contain them.
But inside the controlled area on occasion you will have to grind or weld on radioactive metal, so when you grind on this you create airborne contaminats.
This means, its in the air, like your garage or homemade booth, so they have to work in it just like we do. Different contaminats, but still airborne.
Thats why power plants have extensive training in respiratory equipment and how to use it.
Supplied air is used when they expect a lot of airborne contaminats and also radioactive dust and dirt.
They have monitors to check for inhalation and radioactive particles and dust that you have to pass through to get out of a controlled area and into the general areas of a power plant.
You can have radioactive air in a controlled area of a power plant that you cannot see, yet detect it with monitors.
Those areas are not accessable with out work plans, permits, job briefings, training on how to dress for it and how to undress getting out of a radioactive area. In other words, very tight controls in every aspect.
So, if a power plant can deal with it effectively, then how can we with out extensive training.
One of the major differences, they have to keep radioactive dust, we'll use the word dust, from getting out of the room there working in and out into the hallway where they exit the dust area.
They do this by training on how to undress with out spreading any dust around, its a very precise routine on what garmet of clothing to take off first. etc. Then the exit area is monitored to make sure everything stays clean.
We don't have the undressing problem they do.
So back to fumes in the booth.
Using supplied air in your garage or homemade booth.
Don't assune you have a hundred percent protection factor with supplied air.
There can be problems with bad air at the intake of your pump, air line connector problems, and problems with the hood connection.
If you are going to use supplied air, have somebody around watching you through a window or whatever, especially when you;re dealing with a lot of fumes.
The unit I have doesn't have a monitor to check the incoming air for any contaminats or quality of air I'm breathing, so pump placement is very important, and keeping any bad air from getting to the pump. Things can change your air quality, car running by it, a lot of things.
I put on a cheap paper suit, rubber or vinyl gloves taped to the paper suit, and the hood tucked inside the suit.
I use mine for painting and sandblasting a lot.
When you're working with supplied air, always be aware of an equipment malfunction, and your nose is your best guide, if you can smell fumes while you're working with it, get out of the area, because something on it has failed.
To repeat here, keep all your air lines clean on the outside, box up your hoods, keep it clean, take care of the best tool you will ever have for painting cars.
Supplied air will give you excellent protection, I have sprayed and had fumes so thick, my buddy asked me how I could see to paint, but when you're next to a car you can see just fine, even if it doesn't look like it.
When I'm in those situations I haven't smelled any paint fumes at all through it, and I come out clean.
All of us on these car forums need to read and learn all we can on this, and no matter who you are or what you think, if there is a new or better way to do this, share it, no matter what it is.
I know I repeated a lot of stuff, but I do the old two fingered typing.
Hope some of this helps.
Rob
"There are questions to be answered, and answers to be questioned"
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