Shop Air Filtration and Ventillation Safety

[kilojoule]

Hey guys,

I am helping to set up a small composite fabrication shop and I was hoping to get some knowledge on how to make the air quality safe in the shop. This will be used by student clubs so the volume of parts will be very small, maybe one a month. However the last thing we want to do is expose people to harmful chemicals. We have personal safety down, half faced 3M respirators with particulate or vapor cartridges depending on what we’re doing, along with gloves, safety glasses, and hearing protection.

To get high quality air with a limited budget, what we’re thinking is to do our best to sand and cut outside but if we do it inside, for example on a drill press, we can have our shopvac clamped down next to it and on while we’re cutting. It sounds like this may not filter out some of the smaller particles and something like a JET dust collector could be more optimal, but we’ll have to wait till we get more money to get that. However the biggest thing I think we can do is to get a ventilation fan going along with an inlet air source we already have. I was looking at this ventilation fan along with 6" ducting. Additionally I was thinking we could get a big box fan to run while we’re working with resin.

Would that be sufficient protection for us? I think the personal protection will protect us while we’re working directly with things, but when nothing is going on in the shop I want to make sure the air quality is good and that fine particles won’t be allowed to layer things and be ingested by us.

Thanks!

[Worldwealth]

Hey guys,

I am helping to set up a small composite fabrication shop and I was hoping to get some knowledge on how to make the air quality safe in the shop. This will be used by student clubs so the volume of parts will be very small, maybe one a month. However the last thing we want to do is expose people to harmful chemicals. We have personal safety down, half faced 3M respirators with particulate or vapor cartridges depending on what we’re doing, along with gloves, safety glasses, and hearing protection.

To get high quality air with a limited budget, what we’re thinking is to do our best to sand and cut outside but if we do it inside, for example on a drill press, we can have our shopvac clamped down next to it and on while we’re cutting. It sounds like this may not filter out some of the smaller particles and something like a JET dust collector could be more optimal, but we’ll have to wait till we get more money to get that. However the biggest thing I think we can do is to get a ventilation fan going along with an inlet air source we already have. I was looking at this ventilation fan along with 6" ducting. Additionally I was thinking we could get a big box fan to run while we’re working with resin.

Would that be sufficient protection for us? I think the personal protection will protect us while we’re working directly with things, but when nothing is going on in the shop I want to make sure the air quality is good and that fine particles won’t be allowed to layer things and be ingested by us.

Thanks!

Air movement is key. I have great air movement with one of these, although a larger unit.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Turbine-Base-Unit-Roof-Ventilators-BIB12-/390813057118?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5afe46005e

If fumes are in heavier concentration, then the addition of a a higher speed fan pushing air to the rooftop turbine will move hundreds of cubic feet of air per minute. You’ll smell zero fumes with that set up.
At my chemical station, I also use an old stainless steel commercial kitchen overhead hood fan. It is mounted atop my cabinet and turns on when I open the doors to access my Cobalt and resins and is pumped over to my roof top turbine fan. I smell nothing. Of course I just don’t want to breathe any of it either.