Ventilation, toxins, etc

A fellow jeweler, me, and my apprentice and taking the plunge
and opening a commercial location (2nd floor in a downtown
location) and we’re planning the ideal workshop ( in about 800
sq. ft.). The shop has 4 rooms; one for manufacturing (casting,
milling, polishing machine dust collector, etc), one for
benchwork, one for office and customer entry (front door), and
one for designing, photography, and other clean applications
(lunch?).

The other jeweler has designed (and uses) numerous shop aids to
ensure fresh filtered air. She does all of her flexshaft work
involving pumice, brushing etc in a small glass box on her bench
and requires other other two of us to do the same. It seems a
little nutty to me but I’m willing to try it. I may try and use
one of the devices Gesswein has that fits over the bench pin that
you can attach a vacuum hose to. I personally find the idea of a
clean bench tray inviting. I just have a difficult visuallizing
myself working constrained by that silly thing, especially since
I work with a microscope on my bench (didn’t I used to be able to
see this stuff without a microscope???). She believes that
breathing many of the standard jewelry shop dusts produces toxins
in the jeweler… hmmm, I guess I should be sick or worse by
now…

Any thoughts from the other toxin sensitive jewelers on this
list?

Thanks

Jeffrey Everett

The device might be awkward…I wear a good particle mask…and
also while I polish and measure out investment for
casting…Steve Allison, Seattle

taking the plunge and opening a commercial location

Good Luck!
Regarding the dust, I don’t feel as indestructable as I did when
I was 20. I still couldn’t change my prepolishing at my bench,
rubber wheeling onto my shirt, polishing without a dust mask
ways. Yes I have paid my life insurance pemiums.

Mark Parkinson

Any thoughts from the other toxin sensitive jewelers on this
list?

She does all of her flexshaft work involving pumice, brushing etc
in a small glass box on her bench and requires other other two of
us to do the same.

Jeff I think that may be going a little to far. Good ventalation
is a must but I do not think that level of particle safety is
necessary. Most of the particles are to large to stay airborn and
thus are not a hazard to breathing. A filter mask would also
allow more movement without this shield unit. I wear a dust fume
and particle filter mask when I buff. They are very effective. RED

Today I went to a local wholesale restaurant supply place, and
bought 2 clear plastic canisters, with widemouth circular
openings. The plastic is rather soft, can be cut with an xacto.
The sides are flatish, not round like a jug. I layed them flat on
their sides, and at right angles to one another- the bottom of
one butts up against the side, at the bottom of the other. I
cut pieces of each out, where they touched, and stuck them
together with clear silicone caulking. I split some soft viyl
tubing, and put a length of it around each circular opening, to
make it more comfortable for my wrists. If that’s not
satisfactory, I’ll pad it with foam rubber.

The circular openings serve to put my hands and wrists through,
along with my foredom handpiece! I will grind and polish with
rubber wheels and compounds inside this contraption, catching
most, if not all debris inside. When I’m through for the day, I
can either empty it for refining, or screw on the caps, and leave
it for next time. It doesn’t have a vacuum connection, but it
could. It cost me $3.66. I’ll let you know if it works.

I’ve had all sorts of respiratory problems this winter,
including pneumonia and asthma, with two hospitalizations. I’m
not ready to admit that my work caused it, but I can’t believe
that it helps any! So if anyone can answer my last posts about a
real dust collector machine, I’d be greatful. That would of
course be for my big polishing wheel Thanks, Ruth