Sand Blast Hood/Helmet

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 10:27 pm
Hey guys,

Today we got my 79 Ford F-350 crew cab frame on the rotisserie. It's about 25 feet long with that frame on there. Anyway, at teh end of the day I had a chance to try out my new sand blaster. The blaster is made by Brut. Well, Brut gives you the absolute cheapest piece of crap for a "free" sand blast hood. The lense is so horrible that you can barely find the sun on a clear day. That hood went right in the garbage. So, I've been looking around and it seems for 350 to 400 bucks you can get a helmet with a pretty wide view that is air fed. Does anyone have experience with the Nova 2000 sand blast helmet? I need something as I blasted for about 5 minutes and was covered. A friend says the media I am using will eventually cause black lung because it is made from slag. The media is Patriot Black. I think it was previously called Black Beauty. Either way, I plan to do a lot of sand blasting as I have a lifetime of projects ahead of me.

thanks,
Mark



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:14 pm
FirstEliminator -
You definitely don't want to do any grit-blasting without respiratory protection! Ever had inhalation pneumonia? It's not fun.

I'm assuming this is a new setup for you ... You're looking for a cheap (but good) hood - Do you already have the air supply and triple filtration (Grade D) equipment? Do you have CO2 monitoring equipment? Are you using a non-gassing breathable air hose? It's quite a setup to be able to be OSHA compliant, and $400 will not get you there. You can't just plug your hood/supplied air respirator into your standard compressed air line and go.

Assuming you have all of the other required air equipment, there are many companies that offer grit-blasting hoods. Norton's (Nova) is good. So is the 3M Whitecap and Bullard VX Series. They're not cheap though.

Hope this helps.



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 1:24 pm
1MechEng, Thanks for the reply. I do not have the support equipment. If one is using the filtration, can the air be supplied from a regular shop compressor?
I own a transmission shop. One of the things we also do is sell Gates brand hydraulic hose and fittings. I looked through the Gates catalog and did not see any type of air hose, suitable for breathing air or not. I called my supplier to see if he has anything available. He is going to check into non-gassing hose and get back to me.

Thanks again for the reply. Health and well being are important to me and if I don't head in that direction I get in trouble with my wife.

Mark
Berkshire Transmissions
North Adams, Massachusetts



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:34 pm
Mark -
Yes, the air can be supplied from a regular compressor, with a few caveats:
1.) You need a grade D air filtration system (an oil/water coalescer, .05 micron particulate filter, and a charcoal filter for vapors) before you connect your breathable air hose. This system needs to provide a minimum of 6 SCFM to the hood.
2.) Your breathable air hose is usually part of the hood system. Wherever you buy the hood from should also sell the hose. NIOSH (part of the CDC) only certifies systems, not components. Having said that, I know you can get hoses from SAS that might work. (http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Safety-9852-42-Breathing-50-Foot/dp/B000F09OX4)
3.) The breathable air system cannot be used to feed any attachments (blasters, spray guns, D/A's, etc.) - it must be dedicated solely for the hood after it exits the grade D filtration components.

Here is some other information that might be helpful:
[url]http://www.grainger.com/content/qt-abrasive-sand-blasting-and-silicosis-384][/url]
http://www.autorefinishdevilbiss.com/division/camair/air-control-and-filtration/3-stage-filter.aspx
http://clemcoproducts.com/image/data/PDF/Apollo%2060%20HP.pdf



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:30 pm
Like this? http://www.laman.com/breathingairsystems.htm

Is there any cheaper alternatives?


thanks,
Mark



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:22 pm
I think I found something. Instead of using the air compressor to generate contaminated air that I now need to remove the contaminate from, I've found a unit for around 400 that has it's own motor and pump that will draw in outside air and supply it to a mask. After I get home from work I will do some more research and let ya know what I find.



thanks,
Mark



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:41 pm
Here is the stand alone fresh air supply. http://www.turbineproducts.com/servlet/Detail?no=2

As long as I get enough hose where the unit can be placed in clear air, then it should function pretty well. I wasn't too crazy about the blasting hoods they offer. So, I am glad I bought the Nova 2000 Blasting Helmet. The pump and other componants are available separately. But, I think I will be buying the kit with the full face mask to use when spraying paint. Hopefully it won't be too much trouble to hook up the Nova helmet to this turbine. Then I can switch back an forth between the different helmet/hoods depending on what I am doing. So far, the expense has been under $800.
Turbine products also has other attachments for their air supply. One that I thought was interesting was a welding helmet attachment. If I do a lot of stick welding---and especially in winter when the doors are closed, it will fill my shop with smoke.
If this turbine products unit works well, I'll be using it a lot. As long as there is a clean place to put the pump, I think it is the most econmical way to go. Sand blasting alone is going to present a big load for my compressors, so not having an additional constant draw will help too.

thanks,
Mark



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PostPosted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 8:34 am
Mark -
Sounds like you have figured out a solution!
Good luck!



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PostPosted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:54 pm
This weekend I used the fresh air system. The helmet/hood was from Nova and it worked really well. The supply was from turbineproducts.com It worked well too. When it came to priming and painting the frame I've been working on, I had ordered the turbine with a full mask and a half mask. I used the half mask all day today. It worked great. The turbine comes with 25 feet of hose. I had upgraded to 100 feet to make sure the turbine unit was far away in an area with clean air. Even with the sun beating down on the air supply hose it didn't come out too warm. If you are looking for an affordable means of fresh air supply. The http://www.turbineproducts.com unit works really good. The Nova blasting hood was expensive, but, I only found good reviews about it online. I wore the Nova hood for a good 9 hours on Saturday with just a few short breaks.

Below is the most important part of this thread:
Clean air when blasting or painting is top priority! What I found out in this thread (from 1MechEng---thank you) and further research online is that using compressed air requires a lot of cleaning before it is ready to breathe---grade D air.

The type of filtration to make grade D air from a compressor was out of my budget---which is probably true for most Do-It-Yourselfers. This stand alone turbine is an effective and cheaper solution. Whether you can afford the top of the line system or something less, you need to use something.

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