Hello nice and (hopefully) healthy Folks of Swaylocks,
I did a search for health and found 593 hits in the archives. Only read a few and I think it´s scary! I love shaping and building boards, but I hate the though of getting sick from all those nasty chemicals.
One thing I didn´t know was, that your respirator cartridges do clog up, even when you don´t glass and they are exposed to normal air. So I used my respirator (it´s a good one from 3M) after 9 month, to build only the third board with that one, thinking it should be fine. After every glassing step my girlfriend could smell resin in my breath very strong! I was a liiittle uncomfortable with that. So I got myself a new one, and I´m gonna switch ‘em regularly from now on. I´m writing this in hope that as many first timers as possible read this.
But I also have a question: I sand my boards in my Shaping room, since that is the only room I have. I use a respirator for sanding, but a papermask (the nicer ones also from 3M with the exhale valve) for shaping. After, I clean up with a Vacuum Cleaner. But you can´t get away all the dust anyway.
I´ve read that some shapers use respirators all the time and said that those papermasks are crap.
I would really like to get your opions on this and if you think it´s ok to use just the papermask in a room that is also used for sanding?!
And yes I do wanna live long and be healthy. And no I´m not a hypochondriac worrying about that stuff all the time!
Greets from Germany!
Henning