PPE - Personal Protective Equipment

I’ve never done a very good job of protecting myself from the hazards of woodworking or woodturning but a series of things has driven me to take it more seriously. I started wearing a dust mask several years ago but found that my neck was hurting because the dust mask pushed up my glasses and that made me lower my head to get my progressive lenses in focus. That led me to safety goggles with progressive lenses that were made to be used with a dust mask. They were better but there was still interference and the goggles were pushed up enough to make me lean my head down to compensate.

I am retired from a field sales engineer’s job in the industrial air pollution control business. I remembered that one of my customers in the lead industry has a full face respirator will integral glasses. I bought a 3M 6800 full face mask with a spectacles kit. I had RS Safety make the progressive lenses and here is the result:

3M 6800 full face respirator with organic vapor cartridges

The specs are attached to the thin metal rods and can slide up and down and in and out to get your focal point correct.

I have dust cartridges but I added the organic vapor cartridges to help with CA glue fumes. The organic vapor cartridges solved the glue fume problem completely. The last item in the picture above are Beats Studio noise canceling earphones that sync with my iPhone. Now when my phone rings while the lathe and the dust collector are running, I can actually hear it. And I can listen to my favorite tunes while I work.

My neck stopped hurting, my eyes don’t get dust and chips in them and I’m not inhaling wood dust. My hearing (what I have left of it anyway) is protected too.