Dust masks and glasses

[Lee Schierer]

I also wear glasses and use the 3M Half Facepiece Reusable Respirator with no fogging issues.

[Justin Rapp]

Dust mask?! Yea I dont mess with those. 3M respirator all the way: LINK

Forget dust masks. They don't work well, don't have a good seal and breath-back on yourself or up to your glasses/eye protection just sucks. Respirator's are the way to go, and not very expensive ($15 to $20 for the mask and $10 to $15 for new filters). A lot cheaper than developing lung issues.

[Dan Baginski]

Dust mask?! Yea I dont mess with those. 3M respirator all the way: LINK

That’s what I use. Pretty nice and filters are cheap

[Larry Frank]

I use the dust masks rated N100 and they work fine. It has the exhaust valve and I get no fog on my glasses. At work, these were tested on everybody and they met requirements.

I like them because they are disposable and light weight. Disposable means you are not building up germs and such inside. If you use a respirator, you should be properly cleaning it.

[John Gregory]

Since th AO Safety one I really like went out of production I now favor this one. I wear RX safety glasses in the shop.

This is the one I use. I got it at Lee Valley.

[Carl Beckett]

Fogging on your glasses isn't just a nuisance. It is telling you that the dust mask doesn't fit correctly, and you're inhaling dusty air. The reason your glasses fog is that there's a gap between the mask and your face just below your glasses, and your exhaled air gets directed through the gap up to the glasses. When you inhale, dusty air comes through that gap.

This is my view as well.

I use the 3m half mask.

[Anuj Prateek]

I wear glasses and avoided masks precisely due to fogging. Spit, soap and all the similar methods did not work with any disposable or paper like masks.

Tried 3M 7502 and the problem was solved. No more fogging - be it cold or warm. I bought particulate filter with it (I thinks it's something like p100). This works even with mildly grown beard. Do make sure that you order the right size. They need to form a seal on the face.

They make another series (6500). It looks similar but has some difference in air vent. I got fogging with 6500 series.

[John K Jordan]

I wear glasses and avoided masks precisely due to fogging. Spit, soap and all the similar methods did not work with any disposable or paper like masks.
Tried 3M 7502 and the problem was solved. No more fogging - be it cold or warm. I bought particulate filter with it (I thinks it's something like p100). This works even with mildly grown beard. Do make sure that you order the right size. They need to form a seal on the face.
They make another series (6500). It looks similar but has some difference in air vent. I got fogging with 6500 series.

I have several of both the 7000 and 6000 series 3M respirators. I like the 7000 series better - these do exhaust at the bottom but I also like the more flexible silicon material they use for the seal.

These masks are cheap enough I bought several sizes to try - large is too big for me, small too small, and medium is just right. (If you buy from Amazon you can easily return if they don't fit.) I keep all sizes in the shop for students/visitors. (We clean them with alcohol). Some females like the small. I usually give repeat beginning students one to take with them.

girls_masks_IMG_20150804_10.jpg

These are the 6000 series before I started buying the 7500. The 6000 series exhaust in the front but I still never got fogging from them. But since the seal around the nose is not as soft and pliable I suspect it would be easier to get an incomplete seal which could fog glasses.

For me, these are comfortable and very easy to put on and remove. The fit easily under a face shield. I did buy one of the Eclipse dust masks and it was fine but I don't like the idea of the proprietary filters. The 3M respirators and filters are used all over the world by industry and will probably always be available unless society collapses. In addition to the dust filters you can also buy filters for protection from an incredible variety of breathing hazards, for example, volitiles, acid fumes, various gasses, organic vapors, formaldehyde, ammonia, mercury vapor, etc.

Filters: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-...94857497&rt=r3
Respirators: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-...94857497&rt=r3

This is the Medium, 7502: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MCUT86
At the moment they are $20 but occasionally they'll go down to around $15 from Amazon and under $10 from 3rd parties. If price is an issue track it on camelcamelcamel.

I keep extra P100 filters but for woodturning one pair seems to last forever. When I'm blowing dust out of the llama and alpaca coats and shearing I do change them more often! I also wear them when loading hay into my storage building to avoid respiratory problems from allergies.

I also keep a couple of the full-face 3M respirators (but they are not cheap).

respirator_full_face2.jpg

These are pretty tough, stronger than most face shields we buy for woodturning. I mostly use them when spraying chemicals on the farm (weed killers, etc) to keep the chemicals out of my eyes and lungs. I did find a great alternate use once in an emergency - some moron, er, unthinking person accidentally set the woods on fire over the hill from us and the full-face respirator kept the smoke out of my eyes while I cut a fire break with my tractor.

JKJ

[fred everett]

I have 3 different half mask P100 respirators which I wear 100% of the time I'm in my shop. The one I use depends on my current style of prescription glasses, but I will plunk down the $ to protect my lungs if I need a 4th. My latest challenge is my progressive lenses which require exact positioning of my glasses after I put on the respirator....getting old is annoying.

[Steve Hubbard]

My response is not meant to disagree with Frank's comment. If, however, you choose to try a paper mask, just give it a few minutes. Wait for the temperature of your lenses to equilibrate with the temperature of your exhaled breath. This is a leson learned from 40 years in the operating room, wearing dozens of different brands and styles of masks.

[Tom Bender]

My problem with respirators is that they are generally designed as 'one size fits all' in terms of air volume. Yes they have different size rubber parts for different size heads but the airflow is no different. If I am a 240 pound laborer working hard on say an asbestos removal I need a lot of air. For me at 140 pounds and working quietly in m shop the filters are way oversized and block my vision needlessly.

[scott vroom]

This.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1