Well, I am pretty excited about having supplied air for when I paint my Mav. I debated building my own, but in the end decided that my life was worth the $325 that the unit cost me. I hope it works good, but I'm sure it will as it gets pretty good reviews from people who use it. http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NEOMC1-72&Category_Code=NA
I have often thought about one of those. Usually while doing some painting. Only problem I see is dragging the hose around. Hoses & cords have a way of getting tangled up together when your not looking.
I'd like to have one of those. I could use it in my woodworking also. We had one at the power company that was in a brief case. It hooked up to the air supply at the station and fed the air to the bee hive helment to cause an over pressure set up. Worked pretty well. You say you thought about making your own? Do you have any links or plans on them? clint
The advantages of a self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) is obvious. Just be careful where you place the compressor so you get a fresh air feed. With this type of device, you don't want to pull contaminated air into the feed. Kinda defeats the purpose and is easy to do. I am curious about how well the hood seals out external air. The style we use in public safety has a full face mask that seals around your face and keeps out any contaminants from the environment. Our filter masks they gave us since 9-11 work the same way. If it sends a constant positive pressure into the hood, than that will help keep out what you don't want to be breathing in. Otherwise, I have to question how well it will actually work.
You can order the system with a mask if you prefer, but I want the freedom of a hood (room for glasses, ear protection from ISOs, etc) The system should work well for its intended purpose. You can also put an additional length of hose on it, though after it gets so long, the CFM is obviously going to suffer.
The one we had was basically a hard hat with a tyvex hood over it. You had good control over the air flow. When we were spraying Penaleene with a 3/4" asperator we would open the air all the way and the over pressure would keep out the bad. We would hang a 55 gallon drum from the crane and start cleaning generetor parts. lol If you did that today they would shut the whole plant down real quick like. lol clint
just dont hook it up to your air compressor.....that air is not purified and has oil and contaminates in it.....not suitable for breathing air... you need a breathing air pump.... to run off your air compressor it will filter the impure air and convert it to breathable air .... trust me... i have been using breathing air since 1990... good luck
technically tom is correct. Self Contained is the type with an air tank similar to SCUBA, which is just the submersible version. what you have is a SAR or Supplied Air Respirator. Definately you will want a compressor for SAR and make sure it has a good filter. also make sure that it is positioned outside, away from contaminates. Please be careful, using one of these incorrectly can be dangerous, but used correctly is a major improvement over exposure to the fumes.
one other thought....just because you have a supplied air repsirator, does not mean you wont still get a lung full of bad air and paint fumes... you need to make sure that it seals correctly and the most important thing is you CANNOT use a air compressor with it....you must use a forced air pump in conjunction with the air compressor... air compressor supplies air to the air pump, which filters that air and gives it to you through the supplied air hose...
the type of pump i am talking about is a stand alone unit. I hated the taste of compressor air even after filtering. course if you dont mind and your compressor isnt in the vapor filled area with you, it should be safe to do what stmanser says.
This unit comes with its own pump and filter. It is NOT advisable to breath compressor air as it can be contaminated with oils and harmful gases. Yes, certain systems can and do filter the bad stuff out of compressor air making it breathable but this is not one of those systems. This system is designed for use while painting cars by a company who specializes in this type of breathing equipment. I am not worried about its safety in the least.
ok...as long as it has its own pump...thats the only point i was trying to make.... have fun with it...
Tom, you're basically right, but they can be extended to use another air source other than the one on your back. The terminology simply means a self contained air source that protects you from breathing the atmospheric air directly. There's variants on the theme. The most common is the firefighter style that you are referring to. I've been using them for nearly 30 years and I'm just used to a particular moniker. And, yes..no more buzz!
