Guys a I am going to attempt an acrylic enamel paint job with hardener(off topic vehicle) I will be painting in my garage with the door open. I would like to know what the best respirator to use is short of a supplied air system. I'm not making a career out of this, but I don't want to shorten my life either. Thanks as always for the help and knowledge PS I have a beard
Harbor Freight has a one time use respirator that is supposed to be good for isocyanates (sp?) For about $25. Your gonna have to shave.
With your beard you have a problem. No respirator will seal well enough to protect you from the harmful chemicals in paint. Shave your face clean or forget about it. If you’re going to spray catalyst hardened paint chances are good that you’ll expose yourself to isocyanates. You can shorten your life over the long term but you can also shorten your life drastically as in you could die shortly after you finish painting. The only really safe way to use these paints is with a supplied air respirator in a proper spray booth. No respirator is rated to protect you from isocyanates from painting. Not from 3M and certainly not from Harbor Freight Along with that you need to wear proper painting coveralls and cover exposed skin as you can absorb these chemicals that way too. Your eyes are vulnerable to this too so the supplied air respirator should be a full face model. You can do it the right way, I did it by building a spray booth in my garage. Spraying that stuff in your garage with the door open is a good way to poison your family or neighbors. Take a look at the painting at home in your garage or driveway thread. Lots of painting was done that way however a lot of it was done before the 2 part catalyst type paints.
Safety Data Sheet for Martin Senour don't know what brand you're using http://www.easternct.edu/ehs/files/2014/01/acrylic_enamel_Senour.pdf Just re-read and noticed you said with hardner, that would change things, be sure to read the safety data sheet for the specific hardner you are using.
Like Blue one said, don't mess around with a cheap one! I have learned the hard way with "regular" house paints, both oil and water based. You may think that you are safe with a cheap respirator, but your skin, and eyes are very porous and you would not believe the amount and type of chemicals that will leach into your body and cause you liver damage and more. Please be very careful and read the safety data sheets like Heavy Old Steel mentioned.
None of it is safe if you are spraying and as mentioned a respirator cannot be properly used with a beard.
As mentioned, that stuff isn’t safe either. There are noxious chemicals in every type of paint and coating product.
Blue One said it perfect & nailed it. Painting in the garage without proper environmental controls and protective equipment is playing roulette with ones health. Read the safety data sheets for proper precautions & follow them for the paint and the hardener. Industrial health standards drove the disclosure of the safety hazards of materials and companies insist that the employees follow the recommendations to protect themselves. The same materials are sold to people off the street that may not be aware of the SDS or MSDS safety sheets. They are unwittingly taking risks or ignoring precautions with the materials to affect themselves and their families. Urethane & acrylic hardeners are isocyanate based that is extremely toxic. I painted over the years and got away with it. I decided to get smart & built a booth like Blue One with an air change about every minute, proper personal safety equipment and still developed a sensitivity. The isocyanates affect the body through skin, eyes & respiratory system. My episode was like a bad asthma attack and it took some hours to shake it off. It can get worse with each exposure so I am staying away from the stuff. I worked in industry with the risk of deadly gases escaping piping so we had seal tests done with a mask annually. Each employee is given a card that states the mask make and size that sealed on their face. They had to present the card to be issued a mask from the stores. If an employee or contractor was not clean shaven on site they were given the opportunity to shave or go home. Stay safe.
I certainly wouldn't cheap out on a respirator or welding hood by choosing Harbor Freight! Those tools are like a parachute. I want the Cadillac! Splurge by buying a quality respirator and save some money on the back end somewhere else. Stay home and skip that $75 restaurant bill, do a car or home repair that you'd normally farm out, etc.
Different makes fit differently, poll your friends and ask to try on their mask. Good ones come in different sizes too. I've found my smallish goatee will fit inside a large 3M mask. If it's not a full face, wear a beanie and tight fitting safety glasses. Then the problem becomes glasses fogging up... When you're painting, if you can smell solvents your mask isn't sealed well enough. Tighten the straps, if that doesn't seal it, stop painting and get a different mask.
Do a Google search on respirator fit test. There's a method to checking for leaks and for proper check valve function prior to use. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I wore a lot of different respirator styles in power plants over 45+ years. Norton and North were good and following instructions made very good seals to your fresh shaven skin. Over the years the best cartridges I found were for pesticides. No matter what toxic cleaner, paint, etc: I could not smell anything thru one, others I could always smell the product. Depending on the product I also wore those "paper" white suits.
A 3M 7192 or 93 is used at 1000’s of body shop painters daily. It’s has a charcoal filter..it will protect you while you spray....you need to be clean shaven, it’s needs to fit properly, and it needs to be thrown away and changed according to its lifecycle. If those things are done it will protect you.. Inhalation Skin Eyes All ways to get bad things into your body..most painters don’t protect their eyes due to glare issues, but do wear gloves when mixing or cleaning. How long is it good for....depends on air or booth flow, exposure times, how it’s stored.. If you buy one please keep it in a sealed bag or Tupperware type bowl when not in use. If this is a one time job you should be fine provided you don’t leave the thing sitting over a open can of paint. Maybe keep a time chart on how long you’ve used it. I would buy some N95 dust masks for sanding and keep the other for spraying. Just remember it’s not a 1 time buy....it’s a disposable respirator..
For some reason 24 hours of exposure/use for the cartridges in 3M respirators was supposed to be the limit. Stored in an airtight container as mentioned when not in use. We would toss them after 90 days roughly, whether we got the full 24 hours of use or not. I always wanted to borrow an SCBA from the fire dept. when I was a volunteer, but the chief wouldn't allow it. I have a cousin who had the mask from one years ago, he ran a hose from it to outside air, and it worked well.
Considering that or the 07192 with 60926 cartridge, but will probably go with the disposable and replace as necessary
I have been using a 3M 07162 full face mask respirator on some small jobs outside,fenders, parts,etc. I think I will step up to a supplied air system. Any recommendations ?
I use an Allegro 9901 respirator which is a very nice unit. https://www.allegrosafety.com/product/lp-full-mask-supplied-air-respirator/ I hook it up to a Hobby Air turbine. It works really well. My hobby air turbine looks like the yellow one in this picture.
I've had a moustache for 30 years that I'd like to keep. Looks like your rig should work. I'm I thinking correctly? Thanks. Pete
As long as there's no hair where the sealing surface is then good to go. Another thing about a supplied air respirator is that as long as air is being fed from the turbine to the mask it is under positive pressure and you breathe out through the discharge valve. That positive pressure also helps to keep the nasty stuff out with a steady flow of cool fresh air that keeps the mask from fogging up too.
Hey Scott, when you start pricing high quality respirators, paint suits, air filtration and water traps, paint, hardener, reducer, clear, hardener for the clear, 2k high build primer, sealer, and so on and so on...It starts making sense to call your local MAACO and see what they would charge to squirt some paint on your panels. I have a buddy who owns the local store and he has shot my last 6 or 7 cars including some touch ups on my daily. I take him empty bodies off the frame and he shoots them on a Saturday morning when the production shop is closed and the heat is off in the drying booth so the paint has time to flow out. The paint jobs turn out nice, the price aint bad and I don't have to worry about health damage. This was fresh out of the booth and prior to wet sand/polish. I have painted many cars myself but I cant imagine taking the risks with my health when I can send them to the shop and have them shot in a $25,000 paint booth with a nitrogen painting system by a painter that shoots hundreds of cars per year. Just food for thought.
One thing no one mentioned. Absolutely DO NOT spray catalyzed paint of any kind in an attached garage as the fumes will work their way into the house and to your family. Around here there are some guys with paint shops who are outstanding with a paint gun but aren't that great on finish body work. I don't think that one in particular has ever had a long board in the shop as they shoot great paint but you can see the DA marks all down the side of every car they do. On the other hand there is a rebuild shop in town that rebuilds late model wrecks and turns out some flawless paint jobs that I want to talk to about shooting my 48 when I get that far.
I know a retired painter that can’t be around paint anymore..he does the bodywork...gets em perfect, buys his brand of paint, trailers em to Maaco, pays for the paint job, slips the painter another couple hundo, leaves with a nice, baked on, shot in a booth job, with plenty of material to cut and buff...dudes cars have one best paint at some local shows..
As others stated cover up. No seal with beard. I paint but have considered just paying for mask and spray, some shops offer the service very reasonable.
That might imply that the garage is attached to the house. In that case, stop, never mind the pilot light. Do not paint in an attached garage.
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