[TheForge] beards and masks

[Jerry Frost]

There is a certain amount of common sense to apply to 
this question too. As Dave and a few others say, a mask 
works well enough in spite of their beards. I have the 
3M Whitecap II supplied air helmet because I was 
welding some pretty toxic stuff and painting with epoxy 
paint at the time. The helmet solved any fume, vapor, 
dust, anything else problem for me.

For general shop work however, I hardly ever broke out 
the supplied air system. In my new shop it'll be even 
less necessary with it's downdraft exhaust system, 
purpose designed cutting and welding tables and such. 
The biggest concern is going to be CO from the propane 
forge and a filter mask isn't going to do much good 
against CO. For that there are meters.

So a person needs to determine a few things to decide 
on appropriate protection:

First I think is personal susceptibility. This is an 
arbitrary starting point, I just picked it I don't 
think it's necessarily more important than other 
factors.

Second would be toxicity.

Third would be pervasiveness.

I'm not sure what to call it but this is the tendency 
of a particular material to defeat protection. For 
instance steel grinding dust isn't particularly 
invasive, a little distance and it settles right out of 
the air so a simple dust filter will stop it. At the 
far end of the spectrum would be something like 
flourene vapor. (to pick something REALLY nasty) This 
will absorb through your skin is persistantly toxic and 
requires something on the level of a class 3 or 4 MOP 
suit or greater. (just guessing about the MOP suit)

I picked up my supplied air helmet because the xylene 
in the epoxy paint really effects me and the hard 
facing wire I was using has all kinds of nasty metals 
in it, from arsenic to vanadium. I could've gotten away 
with one of the fabric hood type supplied air systems 
for the welding but it wasn't very adaptable to the 
painting. The helmet on the other hand works 
wonderfully when used in conjunction with my one piece 
rain suit. It's kind of like a dry suit but not quite.

Lastly is wearability. In some cases the desire to 
protect onself from a danger actually puts in at 
greater risk. As you increase your armor you decrease 
your mobility, visibility, sensitivity to your 
surroundings and so on. How many times has the question 
of gloves or no gloves been discussed?

On one side you're more protected from burns but on the 
other your risk of putting yourself in a position to be 
burned goes up due to insensitivity and relaxed 
awareness.

Believe me, when I was suited up to hardface auger you 
could've snuck up on me in a Harrier. I had to take 
special precautions to make the area clear of trip 
hazards, keep the augers racked so I could load and 
unload them. There were all kinds of special 
precautions I had to take, especially if anyone else 
was in the shop. Others there was such a pain I made a 
point of not hardfacing if anyone else was around.

Anyway, it's a judgement call. You probably won't need 
a space suit but keeping as much crud out of your 
system as you safely can is really good.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.


From: "Hufford, David" <David.Hufford at EKU.EDU>


I have a full beard, and I use one of those 
battery-powered filter face shields.  It has disposable 
filters and works great with a beard.  It's probably 
not 100% efficient, but is excellent for dust and 
particulates.  Actually, I've used a fume respirator 
and, in my experience, does a good job despite the 
beard.  Granted, you don't get an airtight seal, but 
90% protection is better than none.
David Hufford
Richmond KY