Lathe Safety: Face Shield vs. Respirator
George VondriskaDescription
Ready to do some turning? Keep lathe safety in mind. You’ve got to wear a face shield to protect your face and eyes. When you get to the sanding step you also need to protect your lungs, something a face shield alone won’t do. Check out this video to learn more about face shield/respirator combos.
When I put a chisel to this piece of walnut on the lathe, there are gonna be chips flying all over the place. It's kind of like in this part of the country watching snow come out of a snowblower shoot stuff, just launches. When the chisel work is done and we get to the sanding step, then there's gonna be fine dust all over the place. Now, a couple of things you really wanna make sure that when those chips are flying you're protecting your eyes. You really wanna make sure when the dust is flying you're protecting your lungs. And here's the deal with wood dust. You might not react to it today, but it's an accumulative thing, or a cumulative thing which means that the more you breathe in the more likely it is that you will react to it in the future. So non presence of an allergy in you're woodworking today doesn't mean you won't have one in a year or two or five years. If you don't protect yourself. So one approach to this would be a face shield. And I like this much more than goggles for working on the lathe. Because of course, when we put on the face shield and drop it into place, we have full protection. I really like this. If you're using a, if you're turning a bowl on the lathe. The thing with bowls is that we get the walls thin and sometimes a chisel catch or something will cause those walls to blow up. So that face shield protects not just your eyes but also the rest of your face, because you're right here leaning over that turning and there's stuff flying all over the place. That takes care of our eyes. Now, what are we gonna do about breathing? You really need to wear a dust mask if you're wearing a face shield. So with the dust mask, we can pull that up over which makes it hard to talk on the video then wrap up our protection by doing this and this. Now we've got ourselves fully protected. Well, if you've been poking around, turning at all or woodworking, you might've heard about respirators. So this kind of Robocall looking thing does everything in one package for it. The deal is that. Course, we've got a face shield on the front. On the back, there's a switch. When I turn that on an internal motor is drawing air in, the air is passing over filters and feeding into this area down below. So I'm always breathing clean air. And when you put this on it's actually pretty clever technology. It doesn't go on like a scuba mask, where it's completely sealed around my face. But what happens is that because we're pumping air in we've created a high pressure area right here in front of your face. Which is fogging up. Cause it's not running. There we go. We create this high pressure area right here in front of your face. That makes it difficult. If not impossible for dust to back feed around the shroud and get up where you're breathing. So for me, I went to one of these years ago because I do enough turning and woodworking in general to mean that I'm very frequently exposed to this dust. I really wanna make sure I don't have any longterm effects from it. So I wanna make sure that I'm protected. What I like about the respirator is that I find it much easier to wear for long periods. Than we're in one of the dust masks. So at something that in your woodworking it's worth exploring, it's worth maybe getting one of these on your birthday or Christmas list because longterm I think you're gonna find this is much easier to wear. Because it's easier to wear. You're gonna wear it more frequently. That's gonna be better for you and your lungs. And they've gotten more and more comfortable all the time, much easier to put on. So check them out face shield or dust mask versus respirator with a face shield built in. I just wanna make sure that you're staying safe protecting your eyes and your lungs when you're working in the shop.
Is it worth asking questions is Georges doesn't even acknowledge he read them? No response to direct questions! Is it worth asking mine? Does it change anything if I am a gold member? This is unclear... I, too, would like to know the brand of the respirator face shield combo.
When it comes to a respirator, I started with the model you showed but found the weight of the blower on top of my head made it uncomfortable for long periods of time - especially when turning bowls or hollow forms where I may be leaning over the lathe bed. I have since switched to a model where the blower and battery are worn on a belt and connected to the helmet by a hose. I wear this comfortably all day long.
Have had a Trend for 3 years. It died on me recently, looking to replace and want to know what my options are.
Hi George, What are your thoughts of sharing this device in a shared wood-shop? Thanks Bob
I have an older similar piece. Battery is worn on the belt--but I still sometimes find it top heavy. For those of us with beards, it's the best way to go as nothing really seals well with a beard.
I love the protection it provides both for flying objects and dust however there are two issues that need attention. (1) The grade of the plastic is lacking in the area of static control and scratch resistance. The additional stick-on shield does help protect from scratches but does nothing for the static control. Also after you replace the plastic stick-on it is near impossible to get a complete seal and this results in a visible distortion. (2) The low battery signal cannot be cut off and comes on after a short usage but the battery will still provide power for at least another 6 hours.
I am newto woodworking. I have watched a ton of videos of turning and scroll sawing. I had not seen the respirator mask in use until I watched George use one. I kept noticing that he would put on this mask and I heard the suction kick in with it. Interesting...I thought. I've been using my scroll saw quite a bit lately and I use my black and decker rotary tool to do most of my sanding for the end result of my projects. I currently use a half face filter with the pink filters. It does the trick but it gets a bit uncomfortable after an hour of use. I'm going to check into these respirators. They look comfortable but maybe just a bit heavy. I received my new PSI lathe about a month ago and just starting to pilfer around with it. One might come in real handy around my little 10x13 unvented shop.
I love the site's videos and articles. Thanks for producing them. I have read that if you use a face shield while working on a lathe, that is not enough to protect your eyes and you need to also ware safety glasses. Can you please comment on this.
That's the Trend Airshield Pro. It comes with or without attached earmuffs. You can get it lots of places (Woodcraft, amazon.com, etc.). The model he has runs about $365.
+1 on wayne's commen t. Where can I get one? and what is the brand?