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Marc:Today we can breathe easy

because we're going to talk about

protecting our lungs from dust.

(lively music)

Now the best place to collect dusts

is at the source so you need

some sort of a high powered dust collection system

like my cyclone here.

But one of the smaller portable bag units

just to get all the dust directly from the tool

that's producing it.

For smaller portable power tools I recommend

either a Shop Vac or a specialized dust extraction system.

Now regardless of which system you're using

just because it looks like you've pulled all the dust off

at the surface and there's really no visible dust,

that doesn't mean that you got it all.

The most dangerous stuff is the smallest stuff

and you can't even see it.

Now when talking about dust particles,

we're going to refer to them in a unit of measurement

known as microns.

Now micron is just one one thousandth of a millimeter

so it's really, really small.

Now just for reference the dot from a simple pencil point

is roughly 615 microns.

Now the dust that we come in contact with the shop

comes over a range of sizes.

The largest is going to be between 100 and 300 microns

and that's the stuff that usually just falls to the floor.

Going a little bit smaller

things that are around 10 microns,

that's the stuff we start to breathe in.

It gets lounged in the nasal passages

and also at the top of the lungs

but the good thing is our body's natural ability

is there to sort of expel it through normal coughing.

Okay I said normal coughing.

Now the smallest stuff around two and a half microns

or less is really the most dangerous.

That gets down into the bottom of the lungs

and some of it does get dissolved into the bloodstream

and then filtered out by the liver

but not all of it.

The stuff that stays there can lead to allergies,

a lung disease and even cancer.

Now even though I have a really good dust collection system,

I'm never a 100% positive

that I'm getting all of the small really fine dust particles

so I like to protect myself a little bit more

by using a respirator.

Now some people may see this

and think it's a little bit overkill

because they just use regular dust mask.

My problem with a regular mask is

and of course you could spend a little bit more money

to get the nicer ones that fit better.

Most of these don't really fit that well

over your face and you wind up having gaps

where you're just taking in unfiltered air

which is obviously defeating the purpose of it.

The second thing is over all comfort

because these are usually made of paper.

They're not that comfortable to wear

for long periods of time

whereas a respirator with this nice very soft

rubber area here around your face

is actually pretty comfortable

when you work out here all day long

you really need something that's comfortable

otherwise you're just going to keep taking it off

and again defeating the purpose of wearing it

in the first place.

I usually recommend a half mask respirator

very similar to this one.

Let's talk a little bit about the filtration itself

and with most respirators

it's really going to be two stages.

The first is going to be the dust filtration

or particulate filtration that you get with soft pads

like this stuff here.

The second one is the one that filters out the fumes,

usually it's an organic cartridge

and you can actually get cartridges

that filter all kinds of different things for specific test.

For most things that we do as woodworkers

and most of the finishes we deal with,

the standard organic vapor cartridge

that typically comes with these respirators

is more than adequate for what we do.

Now let's take a really close look

at one of these filter units and I'll show what's inside.

Now first glance you might think that this cartridge

has something pretty complex going on inside there

but the reality is, it's just activated carbon.

Anyone has ever had a fish tank

has had a lot of experience with this stuff.

Now activated carbon is really cool stuff.

It may just look like an irregular black pebble of some sort

but the reality is this stuff is incredibly porous.

You think of the surface of activated carbon

sort of like maybe the surface of an English muffin

where you have a lot of nukes and crannies

and places for things to get lodged into

but instead of butter

we're basically filtering out the air that we breathe.

All of the bad gases and things as they go

sort of pass through here,

they get stuck into all of these nukes and crannies

on the activated carbon.

The surface area this things is incredibly large

for the size that it is.

If you take just one gram of activated carbon

you get the equivalent of over 5,000 square feet

of space on one gram with that stuff.

Now let's talk about particulate filtration

or dust filtration.

Now it's important to know what the numbers

on these filters means

because at some point

you're going to have to buy replacements

and if you start looking online

it can get pretty confusing pretty fast

if you don't know what this mean.

The good thing is its pretty simple.

There's usually a simple letter and number.

The number itself 95, 100

it depends on which ones you buy

just refers to the efficiency.

If it's 95 it means that it collects 95%

of the airborne particles that pass through it.

If it's a 100, it doesn't exactly collect 100%

it's usually labeled as 99.97% effective

which is pretty darn good.

Now the letter is typically either N or P

and I think there is a few others

but most of the time I don't come in contact with those.

If it's N it means that you can't use those

for oil-based aerosols that might be in the air

and for dust that's really not a problem.

If you buy the one with P on it

that means that you can use that with oil-based

plus everything else.

Typically when I'm buying replacements I just buy P

just in case because who knows

what I'm going to be using it for at some point

and it's usually not that much more expensive.

The ones that typically come with the respirators again

are like an N95 for instance,

when I buy replacements

I like to get the upgraded best ones that I can get

so I typically go with something that's labeled P100

and that's what these little pink ones are

and I don't want them to be pink

but that's the way that they come

and it catches a lot of attention and the ladies love it.

Now I get a lot of questions about my respirator set-up

so I'm going to show you exactly what I use.

I've got a 3M 7500 series respirator,

very comfortable and the real reason why I like this one

is because of the down firing exhaust.

Most respirators have an exhaust right in the front

which tends to go right up into your glasses,

your safety lenses and fog them up.

This on the other hand fire straight down

so you never really have that problem.

Now the cartridges for this, pretty straight forward,

they're always color coded.

The one I use is color coded with black

that's the standard organic vapor cartridge

and that's what's going to come with it

when you buy this brand new.

The system is pretty straight forward.

This is actually what it comes with.

Okay twists on and locks in place.

Now the organic filtered cartridge

has this little plastic cover on it.

If I can get that off.

It's got this cover on it

okay so now we're back down

to the single organic cartridge itself

then the particulate filtration goes on top of that

and then this little plastic piece holds it in.

If you want to step up to a better filter,

this is the one that I purchased okay,

the little pink one.

The problem is this doesn't go on there,

okay and this plastic piece doesn't allow this to fit

so I did a little bit more research and realized

that there are alternative covers

so you don't have to use this one.

What I wound up finding was a cover

that had another port that I can attach this to, right?

Now and it's relatively inexpensive,

it's only a couple bucks for that.

The ultimate set up with both stages of filtration

P100 on the outside of my organic filter

all connected together to me that's the ultimate set-up.

What you have to keep in mind

is these cartridges are heavy

and you do not want this on your face all day

if you're not finishing, if you're just sanding

why would you have that on there for the entire day.

The good thing is these filters

unlike the ones that come with it,

these have that pore on the outside

and I'm sure you guys have seen me use this

in the show before

connects directly to the respirator

and is now pretty lightweight and very comfortable

to wear all day.

Now when you go to buy your respirator

you're probably going to notice

that they come in multiple sizes.

You want to get the one that fits your face the best.

Now for me maybe as a frame or a reference

it might help some of you,

the size that I use is a large.

The seal around the face is really nice,

goes over the bridge of the nose and under my chin

and I could wear this thing all day

and not smell anything.

That's really what you want to do.

I mean if we had access to the proper fit testing

that they get done like if you have to wear this

for your occupation you'll probably

have to go through a fit test

where they determine how good the seal is

and you get one that's perfectly fit to your face.

No we don't really have that luxury so a lot of times

if I'm using let's just say an oil-based varnish

something that's not too offensive

but you can use it as sort of a testing material.

Do a sample piece finish it.

If you can't smell anything at all

then I think you're good to go.

Ideally if you could get access to a fit test

to make sure that you've got a perfect seal

that's even better yet.

If you do smell something

you may want to take that one back to the store

and try a different size so you can get a better fit.

One thing to keep in mind is if you have facial hair guys

you want to make sure that you don't have hair

between this connecting point in your skin

because that's going to reduce the efficiency