Dust protection

[IWieldTheSpade]

Hi all,

In the absence of a shed or workshop to use, I do most of my work in the middle of the yard. Being in an open air situation, I'm curious as to what sort of measures I should be taking when it comes to dust protection, e.g. what sort of face masks etc. should be worn?

Thanks

[BobL]

Hi all,

In the absence of a shed or workshop to use, I do most of my work in the middle of the yard. Being in an open air situation, I'm curious as to what sort of measures I should be taking when it comes to dust protection, e.g. what sort of face masks etc. should be worn?

Thanks

A few years back I lost my sense of smell for 6 weeks working with MDF outside so being outside is a poor guarantee that nothing will happen. To some extent it depends what you are doing and when you are doing it. Using hand tools produces bigger chips and shavings than power tools but any kind of sanding makes fine dust. If you just work like this for a couple of hours a week then this should be less of a problem than if you work a couple of days a week. If you work when there is a breeze then this is better than working when there is none.
Paper masks are ineffective in filtering very fine dust. Using a dust collector (DC) outside is useful for collecting chips but most fine dust passes straight through regular DC bags so if a DC is used outside the DC should be located as far away as possible from the operator.

[Bob38S]

Totally agree with BobL.

For what it is worth - Many years ago before I had any dust extraction and before I could afford it my best solution at the time was to have a large fan blowing across the job which was done at the garage doors. This was an attempt to get the dust and fines away from me and out of the garage - make sure that no wind is blowing in of course. It was not a great solution [in light of what is known today] but it was the best I could come up with at the time and appeared to work reasonably well.