PPE for Circular Sawing

[simon mitchelmore]

I'm doing a lot of power sawing of conti-board which make an enormous amoun t of high speed 'hard' saw dust. Aswell as goggles and ear protection I now wear a respirator mask aswell. All these separate items don't work well to gether and I end up with steamed up goggles dislodged then an eyeful of saw dust.

I've had enough of coping by holding my breath or closing one eye etc etc, now I need some proper gear.

So I wondered what the group members use?

Is there a decent all in one mask ideally specifically for repeated circula r sawing you would recommend or a combination?

I notice even DeWalt goggles let in dust (says the reviews) so price doesn' t necessarily fix the problem.

[dennis]

If you can afford it something like

[nospam]

I can recommend the JSP Powercap, secondhand ones sometimes appear on eBay. The only downside is that they don't have integrated ear defenders so you need to use ear plugs, which I don't get on with.

[John Rumm]

Ear defenders, and a 3M half mask respirator.

Is this with a hand held saw, or on a table saw or something else?

For handheld use, just adding vacuum collection makes a massive difference. I find I am quite happy with just ear defenders and my normal glasses in that circumstance.

Others have suggested the powered respirators like the airshield and power cap - these are both good I am told - especially if you don't like breathing against the slight extra resistance from a normal respirator. For a simpler option you could look at the Axminster full face visor. This is much easier to get on with than goggles (especially if you wear glasses). It lets plenty of air flow to the face, but completely protects the head from flying stuff.