4reboy.. unless you've been exposed to it for years don't worry about it. It does take years to really cause health issues. Its still a good idea to buy a good respirator though! Doing a restoration of a car will expose you to all kinda of harmful toxins and a respirator should be used at times. Also a good set of wrap around eye protection, full face shield, big box of single use ear plugs, work boots and overalls, an assortment of leather work gloves (different gloves for different uses) and latex gloves. All these things are safety oriented and should be used, though often forgotten. I walk in the garage and put on my overalls, boots and safety glasses and a ball cap before anything else. I found a great pair of safety glasses a few weeks ago that are so comfortable I forget I have them on!

Safety should always be first on the list! If you ever have questions about something health related and your not sure ask here.

 

yes its in there, thats one good thing about these forums. we can help out in ways like this. you need a noish approved mask, check with your local paint store they are about 30$ and you can you it for primer also etc. if i was you pick one up with changeable filters

 

good I'm going to have to dissagree with a lot of this though, I sandblasted in pants and a t-shirt, but with pull over face mask of course. It's just too hot in the summer!

But then the sand ate away the side of the valve and it blew and shot sand on my arm, that hurt a little

But ideally yes pants, good shoes, safety glasses, a jacket and all that is great. I have these clear glasses that I forget about too sometimes, my friends were like "why are you wearing clear glasses..." hahaha

 

Summer?? hehe I'm in Eastern Canada doing my resto every other month and its currently 3°C or 37°F.[:'(] They were actually calling for snow last night! The wife was laughing at me on the phone the other day when I told her. She said it was sunny and warm enough for open windows, shorts, etc in Jersey.

 

You guys make me chuckle when you raise the possible health issues related to the silica in the blast medium. The guy was more likely to die from shrapnel wounds suffered from the exploding Chinese made pressure vessel he bought from harbor freight! That "made in a hurry" ,no quality control hunk of junk is a death trap. I should know. I unwittingly risked my life several years ago when I too bought and used that "time bomb". The shut off valve never made it through the very first run without failing. It wouldn't shut off. After the second load of medium the metal tripod leg that was "welded" to the pressure tank broke off. That piece of Chinese metalurgy was promptly recycled, and is no doubt a front fender on some Toyota. There's a reason why a made in USA tank costs $300.00. If I had spent the exrta cash, I'd have a pressure blaster in my garage today. Harbor freight is good for two things. Bungy cords and tarps. I always wonder what goes through the mind of a person who is about to die as they are pinned under a car that has fallen on them due to those "harbor Frieght made in China" jack stands? Maybe it's "I'm dying and I only paid $14.95 for the set of stands".

 

I think harbor freight does have some cheap stuff, but they're pretty good with some stuff, namely the things you'll only use about once. I have 2 jack stands from there and they're great, but I have two others that are bigger and better as well. Our sandblasting tank was fine, we just had to upgrade the valves to bigger ones from home depot. Today I got this brake bleeder think that hooks up to our compressor and sucks the brake fluid through for 30 bucks, now that thing is cool. It didn't work so well on the back brakes though, namely because there was a clog that took like 3 hours to work through...

 

I've never bought anything from harbor freight myself, and likely never will. Safety is a big deal with me as I'm just recovering from an auto accident 5 1/2 years ago. I still forget about respirators and ear plugs from time to time but I'm not worried that much about the harmful affects of using Silica sand for an afternoon. Now if I was using it on a daily basis it would be different. Jack stands, pressurized tanks and faulty equipment however I don't cheap out on. One or two days breathing silica dustisn't gonna kill you without a mask, however a cheap set of jack stands can be certain death or serious injury with a single failure.