mhorowit wrote:
I"m planning on sandblasting with sand. Worried about cillacosis (sp).
When evaluating a respirator for use in sandblasting with sand, what
characteristics of the mask should I look for? - Mike
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Common sand is mostly crystaline silica (quartz), which is major cause
of cillacosis. Look in your yellow pages under "abrasives" and ask for
Dupont Starblast, which is less than 5% silica (Starblast XL costs a
little more but is less than 1% silica, its what I use). Do a google
search for Dupont Starblast and read about its other advantages. You
can email Dupont to ask closest supplier.

My occupation (cemetery lettering) involves sandblasting and most all
lettercutters I know used to use pressure hoods until they found out
about Starblast. But a good pressure hood is expensive and must have
the supply air run thru a proper filter (such as a Bullard Model 41)
which is heavy,expensive and a pain to lug around from site to site.
Since we found Starblast we just use a good dual cartridge half mask
respirator and a sandblast hood. Search "MSA respirator" and/or look
for them in Lowes or Home Depot.

Rich A.