I was thinking it should be easy to find some $40 fan/pump that would deliver low-pressure air from a clean air location, via hose, to a mask.
Not so. They all seem to want many hundreds of dollars.
What gives? I'm not asking suck air through a garden hose, but this doesn't seem like a big feat of engineering. I don't even need HEPA filters.
Every 33ft of (fresh) water is 14.7lbs...so you need a huge volume (cu.ft) at around 40lbs constant.
Um, I not underwater.
Edit: I am not underwater.
If there were such a thing, people who suspect they have sleep apnea would have it made against the medical establishment then, I think?
Maybe because it's somewhat "medical" it has all kinds of insurance problems.
My suggestion: Duct tape.
Or just get a mask you like, a hose you like, a fan you think will work, and tape them together or attach them somehow. Then when you kill yourself you can sue yourself.
I don't even need something that complex. I just need air delivered and available to breathe while conscious. It doesn't need to overpower an apnea condition.
When I was a lad, the shop teacher made a diving helmet out of a 5-gallon bucket, a sealed plexiglass window, and an air hose. He strapped window weights to it and we boys took turns using it to scrub the pool walls. Worked swell.
Could have fooled us.
So answer the question, where did the air come from. ;-)
I have a hookah that will serve 3 divers at 25' down. It is a 4HP Kawasaki edger engine and a Gast PCA-10 oilless diaphragm compressor. That is probably more than the OP wants but a smaller Gast should work for him.
The problem is ............ finding a decent mask that will seal around your face. You may be able to get a surplus gas mask, and convert that. What you want to do is plausible. If I read you correctly, you just want fresh air to work in a hostile environment. A small positive pressure source will do, even if it is a chucked down squirrel cage. Be very cautious of anything that has to do with a compressor supplied air, as the compressor may have petroleum based oil in it, and can cause lipid pneumonia. But if it is just a forced air, even like the exhaust of a shop vac, that can be necked down, and the flow reduced. Most air provided that way, though, is warm to hot. You will have to just play with it. I would suggest getting a used gas mask, and then a used shop vac, and necking down the flow.
Good luck.
Steve, an ex commercial diver, so I do have a little experience.
On second thought, one of those air mattress inflators, the high volume low pressure things would work with a surplus gas mask. You may have to put an inline valve to vary the pressure. Just enough to keep out the crud you are trying to keep out.
Steve
Steve
Oh, right. He used the shop's portable air compressor.
I don't even need something that complex. I just need air delivered and available to breathe while conscious. It doesn't need to overpower an apnea condition.
Bells & whistles aside, a CPAP is little more than a fan (probably the same one as for an air mattress!) blowing air through a hose into a mask, but with pressure control. A lot like Steve B's idea....
Yeah, an air mattress inflator just might work. I can just adapt some cheap respirator mask, as I don't need it over my eyes. I'll probably drill a hole in the mask to allow overpressure out, if needed.
Thanks.
Just get a cheap (used?) small squirrel cage blower and a length of vacuum cleaner hose, (or plastic flex conduit, orsump pump hose or ??)
Blower could be an old bathroom fan, furnace inducer blower. For short term use, an old hair dryer could work.
There is a much easier solution. You dont need fans, pumps, and hoses. Just get yourself a sexy woman (assuming you're male), and tightly place your lips together. (sticking your tongue in her mouth is optional). Now you both need to get so you are breathing at the same rate. When she exhales, you inhale. and vice versa. You dont need any equipment at all. Just be sure to never allow the breath to excape to the outside, particularly underwater. As long as you keep transferring your breath back and forth into each other's lungs, you will continue breathing. It's considered a closed system, and not only is it much more simple, but it's a lot more fun.
It helps to practice with her before you actually go underwater, and to be sure you can keep your lips tightly together without leaking air, and to breathe at the same rate.
Yeah, an air mattress inflator just might work. I can just adapt some cheap respirator mask, as I don't need it over my eyes. I'll probably drill a hole in the mask to allow overpressure out, if needed.
Thanks.
Mike, I was a scuba diver since 1969, and a commercial diver since 1974. I do have a little experience in this. I can disassemble regulators and put them back together, and that is something that I have risked my life doing, and am still here.
What you want is a positive pressure, slightly over ambient, that is air pressure where you are standing. What you want is anything that will SAFELY give you clean cool air and will do it at a positive pressure so that whatever you are trying to keep out can't get in; be it dust, paint, whatever. Your idea of a relief port is a good one. Look at those masks you buy for painting that have those little flapper one way valves. That would be a cheap way to have an overflow. Try to cut a clean hole and some type of attachment system, like velcro so if you need to change it, you can. Perhaps if you buy a gas mask, it will already have one of these one way flappers. They are incredibly simple, and incredibly reliable.
What you are asking is completely doable. Don't worry about the nags here. You can probably even use regular air hose, but you want a light flexible hose for the last ten feet. Mainly keep an eye on the blower to make sure it doesn't get too hot. Buy one that is AC instead of car powered, you can plug it in anywhere. If you keep up the air flow, it even shouldn't fog on you. If it does, wash the inside of the goggles with spit, and rinse it out. Maybe a DROP of DAWN in a whole bottle of water. Just a little does it.
Let us know how it works for you.
Lastly, you should be able to buy a gas mask at any surplus store, on ebay, or on the Internet.
Steve
Great minds think alike. My thoughts, exactly. If you used a hair dryer on no heat, you could just put a hose on it with a hose clamp. Might even plumb into the hose on a surplus gas mask.
Great idea.
Steve
(Army) surplus store? Those things still exist? (Well, I guess we do keep having half-trillion-dollar wars! Disposed stuff's gotta go somewhere...)
When I was a kid, in the 50's, man, did we have army surplus stores!
Blankets, canteens, (back) packs, web-belts, metal-boxes (hinged lid, handle, etc) for machine-gun ammo.
Bins and bins and bins of stuff.
(I guess that earlier on you could have gotten, on the very, very cheap, DC-3's, B-29's, P-45's -- you name it!)
David
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