Has anyone here ever built their own fresh air respirator system???

I am in the process of doing my car in urethane primer and single stage color. Have not been using a fresh air system up to this point but after reading all of the stuff in a few of the posts here, I'm getting paranoid and want to use one. I just can't justify buying a unit to shoot a car every few years!

I figured there had to be some reasonable way to build a system that would provide a decent level of protection for a "once in a blue moon" painter. Found this...

http://robin.getbiz.net/paint.htm

Opinions? Anyone out there done anything like this?

This is how I see it. Get good ventilation and use properly fitted good condition charcoal masks and you are MUCH better off than trying some home made fresh air system.

A "hobby air" system at autobodystore.com is about $400.00 I think, I can not imagine that you could build one for less.

I made one out of a bathroom fan, a couple of 2" pool hoses and some ducting. The fan is about 80 cfm and has enough pressure to push plenty of air through two hoses if the box is sealed good. I'm going to attach it to a full mask respirator, but I haven't done that yet. It probably cost me about $100 and some time to assemble it.

Let me make sure I understand how these systems work. Is the intent simply to push more fresh air into the system than you would breathe? If so, seems pretty simple. Or am I missing something about how this works?

gwbutch, do you have any sort of "regulator" in that system? A bathroom fan? Hmmmm. I just happen to have one of those I bought a few years ago and never got around to installing!

I already have a full face mask. I need to see if I can get charcoal canisters for it. Sounds like that's a good first step. Then I can move to pushing the air through it.

Thanks!

I do not have any regulators in my setup, but I haven't tried it with hooking it up to the mask yet either. My thoughts are that if you supply enough air to breath, the bad stuff can't get into your lungs. OK, here's the disclaimer: This setup is not NIOSH certified or any thing like it. I do want to emphasize safety when dealing with hazardous chemicals and/or welding. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Please read Its just your Friggin Health topic in this section. Hate to loose any member to something so stupid.

I have to agree with PROPER ventilation a quality mask that FITS PROPERLY, that will provide the decent protection for a blue moon painter.

Get yourself some painter's gloves, we use SAS thicksters. A paint suit, mine is from PPG so have no idea who makes it, but SAS also makes nice suits. Gloves cost around 12 bucks for a box of 50, suit depending on quality anywhere from 10 bucks to 40 bucks.

A suit to the hobbiest is a must, after a little research I found out that ISOs can stay alive on clothing for 8 DAYS. You dont have the ventilation of a production just imagine the amount of ISOs stuck to your clothes :eek:

Another thing I believe should be a must is spring the extra cash for a FULL face mask. My 3M mask cost around 150 bucks, it covers the entire face. Your eyes are just as big of a target as anything on body so cover them.

Dont know if you have read the health post or not but please do, you will find enough info to protect yourself...Eric

Originally posted by gwbutch:
I made one out of a bathroom fan, a couple of 2" pool hoses and some ducting. The fan is about 80 cfm and has enough pressure to push plenty of air through two hoses if the box is sealed good. I'm going to attach it to a full mask respirator, but I haven't done that yet. It probably cost me about $100 and some time to assemble it. First I want to say that I am not a painter, but I worked in a bodyshop many years ago. I also spent nearly 10 years working in the semiconductor industry as a process development engineer. Now I am the service manager for a general contracting company that builds multi-million dollar homes. This combination of experience tells me the following three things:

1- Chemicals found in paint and associated solvents, etc. are bad for your body. I doubt anyone can/would dispute this.
2- Being in the high-tech industrial world, I was exposed to PLENTY of really hazardous materials like TOXIC gases (Boron and Hydrogen Bromide) and acids (Hydrofluoric, Sulfuric, Acetic, Nitric, & Phosphoric) in HUGE quantities, and PROPER SAFETY GEAR IS A MUST!
3- The most expensive bathroom fan I ever installed isn't capable of removing a fart from a 10'x6' bathroom,
AND YOU ARE TRUSTING IT TO PURGE HAZARDOUS FUMES? ARE YOU NUTS?
:confused: graemlins/clonk.gif :eek: graemlins/sad.gif
Have you ever heard of "back streaming"? This is when the air leaving the mask actually creates negative pressure along the sides and inside surfaces as it exits. This negative pressure can actually suck the toxic fumes directly into your face mask. This is why a professional respirator only brings in the same amount of air as it is capable of discharging. If you think your system is good enough to use for painting, then why not test it underwater? If it doesn't produce any backstreaming, then you will not collect ANY water inside the mask. If it does collect water, you are just begging to be poisoned.
Not me. No way. No how. Period.
By the way, I contracted asthma as a result of overexposure to Chlorine gas at extremely high temperature. I was wearing the recommended safety equipment, but conditions of that nature had not been tested by OSHA and everyone "thought" it would be fine.
I should have guessed it was fine when they stood outside.

By the way... perhaps you should read the post at the top of this forum titled "It's just your friggin' health".

The money you save painting the car yourself will not be enough to cover long term medical bills caused by your negligence.

+++

Dan, very will said, my thoughts exactly. graemlins/hurray.gif

I recently went through a respirator training program at work and according to OSHA, there are no approved chemical or charcoal respirators for spray paints containing isocyanates. The only approved respiratory protection for these paints is a supplied air respirator.

As long as you use an approved full face mask and supply it an ample amount of clean air, I don't think that it much matters how you get the air to it. I would however spring for a mask that is designed to be used with supplied air since they have a vent on the nose piece to safely bleed off excess air, although all the masks that I have used have leaked around the outside anyway.

To learn more about the hazards of isocyanates, check out this (http://www.irsst.qc.ca/htmen/utilitaires/isocyanate/index.htm) site that I found on the OSHA web site.

Tom