Just me and my lungs
Over the last few months, when I began remodeling the kitchen, I started investing in some new tools. Really good dust containing tools. I’ve been building and remodeling for like 14 years now and I’ve been using the same basic tools I bought when I started out. It’s hard to bite the bullet and spend $$$ — but it’s time!
I’m dedicated to staying focused on the kitchen but I’m waiting for a very important delivery of a new table saw this week so there’s no sense in me muddling through any more work with my current set up when I’m only a few days away from getting my new one!
So I’m taking these few days to clean up my workshop. ‘Cause THIS is ridiculous! I’d like to blame this mess on the handymen who used my table saw while they were working for me but I can’t. I never even fished organizing it after I completed the workshop cabinets. Part of the reason I’ve been investing in new tools is I want to drastically cut down on (if not completely eliminate) the sawdust I breath into my lungs.
My current table saw is the biggest culprit for sawdust making as it has absolutely O dust containment. I SHOULD wear a heavy duty dust filtering respirator pretty much ALL THE TIME with my current set up.
I’d like to reduce the time I have to wear it because:
- it gets hot and slips down on my nose and pushes my glasses way up — I might as well wear them on my forehead!
- It makes the bridge of my nose hurt after a couple hours of use.
- It makes me feel irritable.
- And it’s just so darn attractive!
So I started my dust illuminating quest yesterday by clearing out as much as I could from my workshop. I pushed everything on wheels outside and carried things that weren’t too heavy. Table saw = TONS of sawdust!
Then I vacuumed.
I vacuumed the floor, walls, windows, shelves, garage door, my tools, my projects, my tables…I even vacuumed the vacuum!
Then I brought everything back inside because it was supposed to rain last night (and it did).
There was so much dust trapped in the mobil base of the table saw that I had to do a “sawdust dance” with it before it all finally filtered out through the small gap between the base and the ground.
Then Wes went out and cleaned up the driveway for me. 😀
It’s funny– but since my back surgery and taking 2 months of pretty much doing nothing at all, I’ve never enjoyed vacuuming more than I did yesterday!
This is the respirator and particulate filters I am wearing these days.
Particulate Refill filters with this Medium 3M half face-piece reusable respirator
A respirator is something I should probably use a lot more. I’ve some small masks but I don’t even use those. I do try to work outside when creating a lot of dust but that’s not really an excuse.
Hey Laura, the 3M half face mask that I’m wearing here comes in 3 sizes. S, M and L. I’m wearing the M. I’m going to try a S too and see which fits better. The M slipped down on my nose still but that might just be what happens after wearing it for a couple hours and the bridge of your nose gets a little sweaty.
I wish someone would market respirators in different sizes. I always find that they’re slightly too big for my face, so I have to pull the straps really tight to get a good seal, which makes them a bit uncomfortable.
As usual, everything is sized for men, since, you know, us women-folk are in kitchen baking something…far away from the power tools.
When I finished out my shop 10 years ago I put in a dust collection system with the tubing and connections for all of my tools. I researched and found dust hoods, surrounds and attachments for all of my existing tools, including my circular saw. It was well worth the effort and keeps the airborne dust to a minimum. The hardest to contain is the miter saw, but a surround with down-draft works good. MDF is the worst for dust, so I don’t use it as often as plywood.
I learned too late about being careful in my remodeling and exposed myself to lots of lead paint. The dangers of old paint weren’t as widely publicized back then. Now I have osteoporosis at a very young age. The lead settles in your bones and once it does that there isn’t much that can be done about it. I have none of the other risk factors for bone loss – never smoked, love milk, grew up on a dairy farm and have always been extremely active.
So you are soooo smart to be careful and protect your health. Some damage is irreversible and is just not worth the risk.
I love this post! I am not fond of the coexistence I have with my sawdusty mess. It gets in my flip flops and my feet sweat, it gets in my ears and the folds in my clothes, and my freshly washed hair… (why do I bother). I need a better set up. I’m curious about a built in vac system for my garage, is this something you have thoughts on? I’m not sure if the filtering part of a stationary system is any better than my shop vac… (Maybe it’s just my particular vac, or my constant cleaning and reusing the same filter, but I get tired of the maintenance. (eyeroll at myself, I know.)) Now that I typed all that, I realize I should just google it. But I really want to see if you think it’s a good idea in a garage… Given, that you deal with a little bit of sawdust. In a garage. (Holy cow that’s a lot of appropriate saw dust!)