A Breath of Fresh Air
Hobbies#
I am a person of pasttimes. I enjoy making things, building sets for community theatre, welding terribly, building things out of wood reasonably well. I enjoy hiking, fishing, camping, and 3d printing. But most frequently, and for the longest time of all of my hobbies, I enjoy breathing.
Now, I know that everybody enjoys breathing. It’s one of those things that if you’re bad at it, it doesn’t stay a problem for long. But I’m not a great breather, despite all of my practice. It’s like guitar for me in that way. I have athsma, and am pretty senstive to lousy air quality. This is a problem with the carpentry, welding, soldering, and other such things that produce stuff that doesn’t belong inside a happy lung.
A regular p100 respirator is great for keeping things out of my lungs. The resistance I feel while breathing normally however is reminiscent of the early stages of an athsma attack. So while I usually do wear one where it’s appropriate, I have a constant internal monologue of “this is fine, don’t panic!”.
The PAPR#
I’ve seen people using PAPRs (Powered Air Purifying Respirator) - which supply slightly pressurized air to a mask in order to pull through a denser filter than your average p100 type. I’ve long thought that I should get one - but they’re very expensive. The recent wildfire smoke in Ontario put that back to the front of my mind. It also had me out buying some small room air purifiers for the bedrooms. The Honeywell units I have take Honeywell “H” type filters, which are a reasonable size for portable use, so I decided to take a stab at making my own PAPR.
Just don’t#
Don’t make your own PPE, it’s kind of stupid.
My Prototype#
I’ve gotten it working in a reasonable way. A 3d printed box holds the filter, and in the plenum, a cheap rechargeable air duster that I got from the river store.
I 3d printed the adapters to clip on to the air blower and the elastomeric respirator mask I already had via some 1" washing machine drain tube, which is what I had on hand, as well as a blank to plug the second filter location. This mask takes McCordick G01 filter cartridges, so my adapter uses those style mounts. The blower at it’s lowest setting supplies sufficient airflow for me to breathe normally, and keeps the mask in positive pressure. It’s pretty comfortable, and I’ve been wearing it running while writing this up.
Next Steps#
I’ll need to incorporate a better way to secure the blower, as it rattles around. Also to seal it against the box - a TPU gasket is probably appropriate, rather than masking tape. I took out the holes to allow external power and to turn the blower on and off, so you have to remove the filter to do either of those things.
Lots of potential to perfect this. Maybe one day.
