[AndrewM]

I'll probably get flamed to oblivion for this.

But here's my homemade respirator setup.

I think it works darn well. These pumps (air mattress pumps from Wal Mart) pump enough air to fully inflate the suit. Michelin man style. I never catch a whiff of anything except clean air while wearing it. Works for me. The air is cool. When I turn off the pumps, the air in the suit heats up quick.

I use 2 pumps. One for air, one to cool the pump(s). I've run continuous for over an hour, pumps were slightly warm to the touch but certainly not hot.

The hose is awkward to walk around / hop around, but I'd almost assume any hose is going to be. It's a 1 1/4" sewer drain hose.

I spent:

$50 on the 2 pumps
$60 on the SAS Safety Hood
$10 on lens protectors
$10 on the 24' hose
and then a few misc fittings from around the shop.

For occasional use, works well for me. Admittedly, you buy a Hobbyair system, you can probably use it, and then sell it (minus the hood, which I consider a 'consumable') for close to what you have in it. I may end up getting one one day, who knows. But for me, right now with my light use, this works very well, so I keep the extra $250 in my pocket.

[txdrifter]

I can get a Quality Air system from our saftey dept here at work since I work around chemical barges what it was is I saw a system and I have the same stuff at the house and it's NOT a $10.00 wal-mart compressor it's a paashe D-500 compressor

[milo]

I have used one to supplement a half mask as well as defog goggles ...not sure if it's "safe air" but seems they put out enough , noisy though...

[fish56]

There was thread about two years ago with a link how someone used a bathroom exhaust fan, built a small enclosure for it with an intake filter, used sump-pump hose and a mask from an army surplus store. They removed one of the charcoal canister filters and attached the air intake there. Pretty cheap but apparently sufficed.
I personally bought a Hobby-air, full-mask awhile back. Thought my time and health was worth it. To each his own

Of course you could always learn to hold your breath like a deep-water diver, take a breath, spray for 2 to 3 minutes, run outside, another breath......till the car was painted.

[oldred]

More memorable last words-This seems to work pretty good!

Seriously guys think about what you are doing here and the hazards involved. It makes no sense what so ever to do this for the small amount of money involved, the risk is simply not worth it. If you want to do this and take the chance your self go ahead but please keep it to your self and don't try and convince others it is ok. You will gain nothing if you convince some one else and you certainly will be doing them no favor.

[AndrewM]

You guys act like there's some special voodoo in the Hobbyair box that'll magically protect you from badness.

It's a motor with a fan on it. Simple enough. Vacuum cleaner motor. Turbine. Probably a 2-stage. High volume low pressure. All it does is move air from one place to another.

Use a mask - especially a half mask - and you're exposed to far more ISO's than with my hood setup. ISOs go for the water, and guess what your eyes have a lot of?

Not saying mine's perfect at all. Just that - it ain't rocket science.

[Irelands child]

Andrew,
To each his own - my preference is a tried and true SYSTEM. I can make up what I want but it would be a time consuming cobbled up POS to build. Others may have thought it out and have a great SYSTEM that they use and are happy with the protection it provides. I CAN afford a Hobby Aire and hood and feel comfortable with that SYSTEM rather than my home made POS that may not protect me and my sensitivity to iso's and solvents.

[oldred]

Ireland, You said it best, IT'S A SYSTEM! There is more to this engineered system than the pump. Sure the home built outfit may work but the stakes are high and if........

[matt167]

plus if you die from sucking on a hobby aire system, hobby aire will have to pay your funeral cost's if it was prooven the system didn't do it's job, that's looking at it from a diffrent aspect.

[shine]

take a deep breath........................... now imagine not being able to.

[Ranchero_65]

How many of you have seen the insides of a Hobby Air unit ?? Whats so speical about it ? I read this thread sort of like a paint gun thread if it's not a Sata or a IWATA is a p.o.s. From what I read here it a Hobby Air or nothing. Well Wake up people not everyone here has $$ running out there butts and can afford them . Check out the sight below Take a good look then look at the Hobby Air..

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/2951/air_supply.html

Take Care
Earl

[Irelands child]

Wow,
Am I missing something - I use Hobby Aire as a relatively inexpensive, non-professional unit for the hobbyist. It is NOT magical !! There are better, more expensive PROFESSIONAL systems available. My concern, as well as a lot of others, is that I (ME, NOT SOMEONE ELSE) use an ENGINEERED SYSTEM.
Ranchero, and others, you can paint as you please. I don't, along with most others here, have money "running out of their butts" as you succinctly allude. I'm a retired professional power plant builder,living on a fixed income and am concerned that my aging body needs a bit of TLC - that is, I WILL NOT chance breathing isos and solvents. The unit you show looks real nice, but my guess is that, tho he built it cheaply, it might be hard to dupe as inexpensively - especially when you add gas @+/-$3.10/gal and a time factor - and it is not an ENGINEERED SYSTEM

I apologize for the bolding and capitals - it just emphasizes my concerns.
Dave

[shine]

i'm sure having that hose hanging out one side of the mask would be a joy to wear all day. in the time it would take to make all that i could do enough work to buy 2 hobbyair's. my health is worth more than a few hundred dollars to me. the problem is some folks read this and don't realize the risk. by the way the fan motor on the bathroom fan is contaminating the air with particulates coming from the brushes and such. if you make one filter the air before the mask. jmho

[oldred]

Shine you make a very good point and this was also talked about in a similar thread some time back. These guys don't seem to realize that inflation pumps and other forms of cheap blowers are not designed for continuous use and thus degrade fairly quickly with the particles of junk from these units in the air stream. A shop vac is a good example because these are commonly used in these goofy set-ups but they discharge all kinds of junk into the air stream. No one is likely to suffer catastrophic illness, at least not immediately, from breathing the air from one of these things however when you consider that any contaminates that do come from one of them will be concentrated into every breath it does not seem too healthy to me. Also look at the size of the hose on that thing! Fellows subtract the amount you are going to spend on a risky set-up (be honest with it) and then think about it, just how much are you going to save. If I remember that article correctly (I am an EAA member, next to my cars flying and sport aircraft is my first love ) That unit was meant for use during glass lay-ups with the exotic, and relatively toxic, epoxies used in the building of composite aircraft. While it would work just as well for paint fumes I can not imagine trying to drag that mess around while painting. No one is saying theses things definitely will not work it is just that for the small investment required it does not make sense to take the chance and argue all you want the risk is there.

[milo]

Another area is the mixing table. A vent there with a glass "sneeze" gaurd to keep vapors from reaching the nose.
Even bondos and fillers are easier to work with if you don't smell it.
Here a bathroom type fan on a speed control takes the cake.
Rule of thumb, if you can smell ANY fumes your doing something wrong.
Keep refining the hobby...