I'm not sure if there's anything to this, but I've been sanding peruvian walnut and seem to get a headache when it's especially dusty. Maybe it's unrelated, but it's got me thinking. Anyone else have this occur?
JP
On Sat 05 Jul 2008 10:22:12a, Jay Pique wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:
Are you really breathing in a cloud of sawdust without any kind of respirator or downdraft table or anything? Not even a windowbox fan with a furnace filter bungi'd to the intake side?
Is this peruvian walnut very hard and dense and does it make a lot of yellow dust?
It's highly probable the wood dust is causing your problem.
We've had LOTS of threads in this group, re: allergic reactions to wood. Google is your friend. A good dust collection system is an even better friend.
Everybody seems to have their own problematic woods. For you, peruvian walnut. For me, imbua. There are websites that list reactions and toxicity parameters for various woods.
Be safe.
-Zz
Just to further the point that Zz made...which was dead on the money, by the way...just about every wood out there that you might work, SOMEone is going to react to it. And just about everyone has one that they react to, altho that one isn't quite as constant...some people don't react, most do, tho.
Mike
I did a bit of googling and see that stable owners avoid walnut dust like the plague. Now, I don't have (much) in common with a horse, but this stuff is apparently toxic to some animals, so it's possible it is indeed affecting me. Whadya know.
JP
Dunno how closely related it is to Peruvian walnut but American Black walnut is fairly toxic and a number of woodworkers develop allergies to it.
Could be as simple as the dust giving you a sinus headache...
OTOH, could be a reaction to the wood itself... Any rash or anything where you've made contact while sanding?
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
I did a bit of googling and see that stable owners avoid walnut dust like the plague. Now, I don't have (much) in common with a horse, but this stuff is apparently toxic to some animals, so it's possible it is indeed affecting me. Whadya know.
************Jay, I am restraining myself to not comment on that horse line.
It should be pointed out that allergies often develop over time. And once developed they can become genuine medical problems. Which is why a lot of woodworkers, particularly as they get older, become fanatics about dust control.
Prevention is the best policy.
"Fred the Red Shirt" wrote
Black walnut is my favorite wood to work with, and I have indeed developed a problem with the dust as I've gotten older .. the finer the dust, the worst the reaction.
Oh come ON!
That has GOT to be hard on you, Lee....like Roger Rabbit's "Shave-and- a-haircut-...... ......."
I'm headed in that direction. This is another walnut side job I'm doing from home and I haven't been too diligent about dust control. Perhaps I really *need* some more Festools....
JP
If you wear a properly-fitted dust mask do you get a headache? I have a Dust-Foe and if I don't wear it during sanding I will have sinus headache! Some kind of wood dust is worse than others and walnut is one of them.
Just had a brain fart... I had a bad reaction to white oak once... Really surprised me, because it never bothered me before...
My allergy doc asked if I had any problems with oak SINCE that, and I said no.. He suggested that it probably wasn't the specific wood, but probably a fungus or something that the wood was carrying..
Maybe it's just THIS batch of walnut?
I'll admit that the only mask I wear is a "dust bee gone", which isn't a lot of protection.. And I don't wear it often enough.. OTOH, I have a 4" DC hose with hood on the lathe, as close as I can get it without it getting hit by the work, and a jet air filter on the ceiling..
I know the Jet works well, because I do a lot of ironwood and it takes just a couple of hours for the outer filter to turn brown..
mac
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That has GOT to be hard on you, Lee....like Roger Rabbit's "Shave-and- a-haircut-...... ......."
"...................two-bits!"
Walnut dust is poison. And I'm alergic to it. Gives me a headache, and binds up my throat so I can't breathe. WEAR A DUST MASK!!!!!!!!!
It's at the point now that even that doesn't help.
** Posted from
I wasn't kidding about that furnace filter fastened to an old windowbox fan with a bungi cord. It does a pretty good job if your face is far enough from the work. :-)
It was an episode of Woodsmith Shop that had the idea. Simple and pretty effective.
My first "filter" was a round "air mover" fan, about 20" diameter, in a cardboard box with a furnace filter bungied (is that a word?) on each end..
I found 2 things:
Even at low speed, it was way too much fan for the filters..
It was better to go ken Vaughn's route and have 2 furnace filters, a course one and then a fine one, on the intake end and no filter on the exhaust side..
I use the ceiling mounted unit from Jet now, but, weather permitting, I still use the big fan.. In the window blowing outside..
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
ws: snipped-for-privacy@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:
Yep.
JP
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