Devices to filter air for breathing when welding or grinding

[Mike4]

I am back finally , 12 months ago I suffered a collapsed lung , got flown to Brisbane .

I am a lot better now .

I found out that there are genetic issues which are the underlying cause , its taken me roughly 12 months to get some resemblemce of normal.
I have seen air filter packs that can be worn when grinding or welding .
I am wondering if anyone has one , I would rather hear from a user than a salesman.

Michael

[KBs PensNmore]

Glad to hear that you are back with us. I don't use one myself, as I don't do enough to warrant it, but several of our apprentices have them, and they are rapt in them, except when someone goes behind them and passes wind/gas, or they do it themselves.

We work mainly on Duragal material, and that is where it shines, no fumes or vapours in the mask area. I think these were about $800-900 each, the boss bought them and they paid him back over a few months.
HTH
Kryn

[GuzziJohn]

We work mainly on Duragal material, and that is where it shines, no fumes or vapours in the mask area. I think these were about $800-900 each, the boss bought them and they paid him back over a few months.
HTH
Kryn

Miserable bast**d. There's an obligation to provide safe conditions for workers especially from welding fumes. Health problems may not appear for years. Can't tell them to have a drink of milk when welding gal anymore.

[BobL]

For someone with a lung condition working inside a shed it is considered way better to install/increase ventilation/extraction rather than just wearing a mask or filter. If ventilation is not used, all that dust stays in the shed and covers surfaces so that the dust can easily be disturbed and lifted back into the shed air so the mask wearer has to always wear a mask in that shed. Even a wood working dust extractor with a hot metal dust catcher bin is better than nothing. Another alternative is an old swampy AC in the roof running without water as this will flush out the dust from even a big shed pretty quickly.

[elanjacobs]

We got a couple of the 3M powered masks for the welders at work and they love them, especially in summer

[Karl Robbers]

We got a couple of the 3M powered masks for the welders at work and they love them, especially in summer

Do you mean Adflow welding helmets? They, and helmets like them are a very interesting subject. No doubt they are great for a welder who is just welding and nothing else, but they have a few drawbacks ifvyou are welding, fabricating, fitting and the myriad of tasks yhat a typical small business employee does during a working day. The helmet is a bit bulky, and is dlow to put on compared to a regular headshield.
I certainly wish that Adflows were around when I used to spend 8 hours and more welding galvanised steel in a production setting, without even a respirator in the early stages. Yes, I did suffer from metal fume fever on several occasions, but that was a very different era, that hopefully we never revisit.
I second the general improvement of ventilation as the best approach, as for every minute spent welding, there are probably ten minutes spent doing some other dust/fume creating task. Even galvanised welding can be managed to a large extent by intelligent use of forced ventilation, although I'm sure that the lab coats probably disagree with me on that one.
It should also be remembered that welding is not just the one process, with the same set of fumes to be managed. For example, I consider TIG welding to be a relatively low volume fume emitter, although some of those fumes could have some interesting compounds in them, while high amperage Flux Core welding produces a lot of fumes, with quite a high solids content. Add in confined spaces, versus open ventilation, and it can clearly be seen that one solution does not fit all, or even come close to it.