The Home Machinist!

Well, spent the last three weeks recovering from ozone exposure and smoke inhalation from a small welding job. I positioned myself to close to the welding site when working on a couple of welds inside my RR bridge structure and apparently blocked my fan from blowing away the fumes. Finally tomorrow think I can get back on my feet.

Anyway, I don't use a face mask under my hood as every mask I've tried fogs up my glasses and I can't see anything.

So looking for suggestions on some type of reasonable cost respirator, or hood that I can buy to block products of combustion. Aside from this massive bridge and turntable project, usually I don't do much welding - occasional repairs and building some odd structure 2-3 times a year...

Thanks
Glenn

Wow. What were you welding, so I can avoid this problem?

Instead of a respirator, have a look at under-helmet fresh air supplies. They clip to your back and have a fan that sucks in air thru a filter, blows thru a hose up to the helmet and down in front of your face. No fogging, additional layers to fit under a helmet, or facial fitting issues. Unfortunately, they are pretty pricey last time I looked a few years ago. Surely there must be an inexpensive one out there some where.

I looked into forced air for painting. Looks like you have to pay at least $400.

Glenn:
Sorry to hear you got injured!
Hope your recovery is complete and that never happens again!!
~RN

Never used respirators, so I can't help you there.
Forced air was used in places where adequate ventilation was difficult or adequate.

Most things, a basic mining principal was used...."the solution to pollution is dilution."
Fans, and/or pneumatic air movers.

If you want to see something pricey, take a look at electrostatic air cleaners for welding. We had some portable units, 120V & on wheels, that we used in a few shops, as ventilation was difficult.
Very effective, but unbelievably expensive for something that looks like a big shop vac. last ones I bought, were about $3000, but that was 20 years ago.....

Bill

SteveHGraham wrote:Wow. What were you welding, so I can avoid this problem?

Steve, I was adding a couple of welds to the cross supports inside of two parallel 3x8" I beams that comprise a 12' long 12" gauge railway bridge deck structure I have been building. The material itself is just mild steel, coated with a thin 2-3mill weatherproofing plastic substance of some type -mostly sanded off in preparation for welding. So the welding plume I think, was typical stick byproducts. Not much work, just a few rods worth of welding, but I was just to close to the welding site -maybe 12" to 16" away, and directly overhead from the bead, due to the weird inside, bottom position of the particular cross beam I was working on.

Even though other methods, such as MIG and Tig are much cleaner, one big risk is getting an overdose of Ozone. Ozone occurs from the interaction of UV radiation from the electrode and contact with the air. Even though shielded with gass, if you get to close to the puddle,some ozone does occur and if you inhale the ozone into your system, it can be seriously debilitating.

For me, the big takeaway is always properly position a fresh air source to blow the welding fumes away from you and out of the building. no matter how small the job.

Glenn

Thanks for the info. I haven't tried stick yet, so I haven't managed to poison myself. As for TIG and MIG, I pretty much hover over the weld, maximizing my ozone inhalation. Perhaps this strategy needs work.

I may go ahead and spring for forced air. I have a Sears gift card burning a hole in my pocket, and I need to empty it before the company goes Tango Uniform.

Wait a minute...how do you wear a supplied air hood with a welding helmet?

I'll answer my own question. You can get a bag kind of thing you wear under a helmet. You hook the air machine to the bag and put the helmet on over it. Allegro makes them. Looks like it would be a real pain to wear.

Speedglas makes a rig that includes the helmet and belt mounted battery pack plus blower and filters. Damned expensive. A friend let me borrow his. I didn't need the air pack. The helmet alone is a bit cumbersome with the air ducting and all. He may be wanting to sell it. PM me if you want me to follow up on it.

He also had a Bullard free air pump and supplied air mask that tthat can be worn a welding helmet.

I just read that a Home Depot paper filter will filter out chromium.