I don't have a respirator, but I do plan to wear some goggles and N95 masks while I work. I've gotten pretty comfortable wearing a mask these past few years, so using one to keep from breathing in whatever dust this machine generates is no problem for me. I usually wear one when sanding wood and painting, too.
The blasting cabinet is great, but the air compressor that blasts the media..... not so much. It takes roughly 15-30 minutes to build up decent air pressure, and 2 minutes or less to use it all up. It's going to be a long, slow process to sandblast all my parts, and that's before I hit everything with a wire wheel and a stain clear coat.
Still, I'd rather have access to a poorly-working sandblaster that I can use myself and get the results I want, rather than have no sandblaster and be forced to pay someone else to do the work for me, and not be satisfied with the results.
Actually, I might need some advice/recommendations on masks/respirators. Turns out that a regular N95 mask may not be suitable for sandblasting, wire-brushing, or painting. It seems to be fine for sanding wood, but apparently that's it. I've briefly researched different masks for using the blasting cabinet, sanding wood and other bike parts, and spray painting parts, but from what I can tell, there isn't a single mask or respirator you can use for everything. It seems I need either different masks or at least different respirator filters for each job.
Could you help me figure out what I need to work on my bikes while protecting my lungs, preferably without breaking the bank? I've only periodically done sandblasting, wire-brushing, sanding and painting over the last 6 years, (as in about week or two's worth of work over the span of an entire year,) but I may not have been using the right gear when I did.
