Thread: Your buffer will kill you.

I wonder how similar that polishing dust is to the Bangkok smog I inhale every day?

Compared to the Bangkok smog, the polishing dust is probably good for you...

I did Google metal fume fever and noted that welding or burning galvanized steel was mentioned. Back in my ironworker days I've had to do that here and there so out of curiosity I googled 'welding galvanized steel'. I was surprised to see no mention of drinking milk before welding or burning the stuff. One of the first things the old timers would tell you to do if you were going to be around the fumes and it worked to keep from getting sick.

I suffer from tinnitus as a result of not wearing ear protection. We used pneumatic impact hammers to run up high strength bolts and worse yet the old pneumatic riveting guns known as "hell dogs" to knock out drift pins and sometimes cut off and drive out rivets to replace them with bolts on old bridges. They call them hell dogs because of the noise. For the past 25 or so years I'm never without the sound of birds chirping because we didn't wear ear protection.

I also burned (cut with an acetylene torch) and welded on structural members with lead paint and worked around a fair amount of asbestos in industrial construction and nuclear power houses in my younger days with little or no protection. Back then the contractor's philosophy was "don't worry about the mule, just load the wagon." I imagine that hasn't changed much. I was told following a lung x-ray in my twenties that I had metal in my lungs. So as they used to say in the morning on some of those jobs,"work safe fellas."

Chris, I don't know. In my experience, the polishing motor has always had its own dust collector. I don't know why. It may be because in a workshop that would use a buffer, say a goldsmith's workshop, it's the only machine that needs it.

Also, don't mix dust from different materials. Don't use the same local ventilation system for sawdust, metal chips, polishing dust, etc. They will light on fire or explode. I guess that kind of necessitates a separate dust collector for the buffer, eh?

That hood you've pointed out is, as far as I understand, intended for use with one of the dust collectors Rio sells. They're pretty powerful and filter particles as fine as .5 microns. I'd also imagine you could put one of those on your grinding wheels; grinding and polishing dust is similar.

As far as the respirator is concerned, that might be too much. If you've got good local and general ventilation, then I'd use what they call a maintenance-free particulate respirator because it is more comfortable. That is not a face mask for nuisances, it is still a respirator. Just remember to get one made for the kind of hazards you're dealing with.

I'm pretty tired, I apologize for any errors.

As Jimmy has mentioned about galvanized metal, I will also mention the grinding aluminum dust will explode if your not careful. I have been to plants that manufacture mower deck out of aluminum and that was a big concern there. You needed to have ventilation that moved the dust outside. I am a old time Ironworker as well and had the galvanizing sickness and spent 8 days in the hospital with the "shakes" from it.
So be safe fellas.

Well... I previously wasn't going to get into restoration, but now I'm REALLY not getting into it. More work for you guys!

When using respirators you can either get particulate filters or gas filters.
Or combo filters that do both particulate and gas.
Some of the dust that comes off what I am working with can linger in the air like a gas because of so much poweder.
Examples would be half fossilised bog oak which is hard stuff but when you do cut it becomes superfine dust that gets everywhere. Another example would be me standing out in the garden with a diamond blade angle grinder chopping paving slabs in half, the end result of that is a cloud of smoke that looks exactly like mustard gas from ww1.

So in short im pretty sure the buffer when i get it working will have much the same effect. So im pretty sure particulate filters wont be enough and I think I will need to use gas/particulate combo to avoid contamination.

Thats the respirator im using at the moment, works very well and also provides face protection.
http://www.face-fit.co.uk/images/content/f-012890.jpg

Greg, that is not gas, that is dust. You don't need a gas filter, you need a particulate filter. A gas filter is unnecessary for grinding, sanding, or polishing operations. I like this one the most. Even that is over-kill.

If you're using chemicals in your shop, or heating up metals, or whatever, you'll need different protection. Check out 3M's website for more options.

All that ground up Double Arrow dust......


Well, I must just ad thaaaaaaaaaa..........


*thump*

I have a nice respirator, which I would use if I polished or on the rare occasions sanded. my biggest problem is figuring out how to get the respirator mated to my darth vader mask while retaining the voice change box.

"honey, what are you doing."

"haa,paa, buffing. the power of this rust is infinitesimal next to the power of the compound. haaa,paaa"

Red
ps
personally I believe the sound he makes is closer to a fa-pah, but I think ha-pah is more accepted.