How would a full beard or goatee effect the integrity of dust masks and respirators when shaping? My friend says one must be clean shaven to get a proper seal on the face. I want to go “scruff” but don’t want to suck dust. Any grizzly faced shapers want to drop their two cents?
I'm not your grizzly gorilla, but I'm EPA and State of Hawaii certified Asbestos Project Designer for the last 13 years, and EPA certified Lead Risk Assessor.
Your friend is right - IF you plan to use a mask or respirator intended to seal against your face. Grizz will fail the seal, and you'll suck dust and fumes past the seal. At that point, maybe a tshirt would be more effective.
Solution 1: Shave. Simple, cheap, effective, and if your significant other has ticklish thighs, there are other benefits.
Solution 2 is a little more expensive: you'll need to get/rent/borrow a hood and air pump. The benefit of these is that they are 100 times more protective IIRC than the 'ordinary' hang-on-your-head respirator. These are what car, boat, plane and any painter should be using when working with two-pack paints (urethanes).
In the old days you changed your filter when you smelled the paint or solvent. With today's urethanes, when you smell the paint you're already halfway to hell. They are that toxic. Polyester resins are thinned with styrene and glassing usually involves acetone - we shouldn't breathe any more of that stuff than we can possibly avoid.
acetone is not neccesary for glassing in poly. old habbits die hard.
warm water and washing powder
I still use acetone to clean my Thalco squeegee (after wiping it down). If anyone has found a reasonable alternative (to the solvent, not the squeegee) I’d be interested to hear about it.
Wait, something isn’t adding up… Chandler had a beard.
hi kieth,
as suggested by huie. have a buket of cheap washing powder and hotwater.
dip the squeegee in the powder and wash in the hot water. can use same method for brushes as well. but maybe try on some cheap brushes first because you have to kinda squeese out all the resin of the brush first. then dip in the powder and mash it in to the brush then rinse in hotwater and repeat a few times all the while squeesing out the material from the brush. get used to it no problems
Whats washing powder? Is that the same as laundry detergent.
yeah laundry detergent but in a powder form
Good input Charlie.
I am also very curious about this question/concern. I have a full beard and am about to glass for the first time. Anybody else have experience in this topic of facial hair and shaping/glassing?
Its simple, you got facial hair you lose brain cells unless you throwdown 1,000+ for a forced vent hood. I am getting one soon just bc of vent prob. SO in summary shave, become stupid or spend money.
what kind of forced vent hood are you getting? I saw Al Merrick’s room first hand and it had input forced air coming into the bay from the top left corner of the room and the output suction was under the lights of the right side. This is not my area of expertise so and details are appreciated.
I like solution #1 the best and believe my wife would agree 
Not sure the brand a local surf shop started a shaping bay then gave up on it so I just have to get a good deal from them. It has a little tube running to your back and then one running to a pump. I shape glass and sand out of a 40ft container and havn’t found a good vent set up for it yet.
Charlie
— I shave maybe once a week and takes 2 months to
grow my very sparse 1/4 inch ‘fu-manchu goatee’. My wife likes it 
I’m using
the 3M 5000 Series Organic respirator and can easily do the ‘suction
test’ - where a slight inhale pulls the mask against my face. Am I
fooling myself to think I have a good seal? (UV cure poly lams & hotcoats)
Thanks
edit not sure if this posted?
Yep, was working in Panama, and brushes were a two hour drive ( and half hour boat ride) away, and acetone was only available in teeny little bottles which were surprisingly expensive. So, what I did was soap the brush, smish it around with my fingers, rinse and comb ( with a cheap plastic comb) and repeat until the brush was as close to 'like new' as I could get. Which was pretty good - still have the brush. Plain old laundry powder and cold water, 'cos that's what we had on the island.
Now, I haven't tried it, as it wasn't available there and acetone is easy to get here, but the citrus-based cleaners, the strong ones like Simple Green and so forth, they do a very good job on oils and similar organic compounds.
What I have used and been happy with for getting both resin and other ..difficult substances, lets call 'em. like roofing tar..off my hands is the Cra-Z- Soap sold by the RAKA resins people: http://store.raka.com/cra-zsoap.aspx . Should do a good job on tools as well, given say a stiff dishwashing brush to work with. I'm given to understand it was originally developed for getting printer's ink off the hands of newspaper press operators.
Hope that's of use.
doc...
Thanks charlie for sharing your Knowledge and great experiance here.
Mack
The RESP-O-RATOR solves the problem.
http://www.resp-o-rator.com/ror/
http://www.hartvilletool.com/product
Resp-O-Rator - Total dust protection, even with a full beard
The dual HEPA filter, one-size-fits-all, Resp-O-Rator solves the beard problem with a simple "snorkel" design, and a minimum filtering efficiency of 99.97 % (down to 0.3 microns). Completely effective in sealing out the lung threatening dust that somehow always manages to seep through other devices. It allows total visibility in all directions. It’s light, comfortable, and won’t conflict with goggles or face shields, hearing protection or hearing aids.
Exhausted air is discharged downward to prevent fog-up of glasses. The anti-siphon check valve prevents drawing in unfiltered air. The Resp-O-Rator is best when face shields may be required and for highly strenuous or extremely dusty conditions where higher volumes of air must be filtered. Ideal for shop use and where frequent interruptions for use of the phone, speaking, or drinking are necessary.
Exhausted air is discharged downward to prevent fog-up of glasses. The anti-siphon check valve prevents drawing in unfiltered air. The Resp-O-Rator is best when face shields may be required and for highly strenuous or extremely dusty conditions where higher volumes of air must be filtered. Ideal for shop use and where frequent interruptions for use of the phone, speaking, or drinking are necessary.
This post title made me laugh. But it is a good question. I would assume if you tighten your mask enough it should be ok. BTW that’s a gnarly respirator that dudes rockin.
Im not a fan of shaving, I have been thinking about a problem with respirators.
I was thinking of using some sort of gel to seal the mask, something like Vaseline. Might be a little messy but it should create a pretty good seal with a little facial hair.
err on the side of caution I say
especially if you have skin allergies or asthma runs in the family.
the hoodie and airpump without the tyvek costs as much from turbine products as a good full face mask with organic filters. There’s lost of vendors that sell them. I just like the cool breeze as I run my air line through a special inline bucket filter of ice water they sell
this is for the dust not the fumes.
