Ventilation

Hey everyone,
I’m new to the site and one of the main reasons I joined was to learn more about ventilation. What do you use for your workshop and what would you recommend? I primarily facet, I would like to also use my lapidary more. An 8” Lortone unit. The faceting doesn’t kick up any dust (that I can see), but certainly leaves plenty of spray. I guess I should mention that I primarily facet glass, I am a glassblower and that material comes with its own risks. If you have ventilation advice and work with glass, even better but regardless I work with the wide range of material from glass to fire opals and plan to work with things like malachite, which I’ve read on this site is extremely toxic to work…the articles I have found regarding ventilation for lapidary work say to use a dust collector. What about an air purifier from Home Depot? I found a unit that I suppose is typically used in wood shops but clears up to 1200 CFM. I used a ventilation hood in my last studio, 1600 CFM and it felt perfect for glassblowing and lapidary work but unfortunately with my current set-up I can’t set up any ducting so it would have to be a self-contained unit which I’m thinking could get pretty expensive in terms of replacing the filters.

I’ve put a lot of thought into this, what are your thoughts? Dust collector, air purifier or ventilation hood? I will be working in an enclosed room in my apartment for the time being.

Wish I could work outside, but it’s not really feasible in my current building. Even if I were to get a patio cover, it’s not something I want to do in my current space.

Thank you guys for any and all of your feedback! I’m hoping to make a purchase as soon as I make my mind up. I do have an N-95 mask (that I purchased long before the current crisis). Hope you all are hanging in there. I want to use this time at home to polish as much as I can!!

Any type of CABBING should ONLY BE DONE WET!!! Especially Malachite for the dust is TOXIC!!!

Thanks for your response rockrat. So, is working wet all of the ventilation precaution you need? Even if you work in your kitchen, an open room? I think that’s where I’m going to have to set up my cabbing machine for now. There is a low CFM fan in there, nothing big or industrial. I am mostly concerned about exposing my child and animals to harmful dust or chemicals, I just want to make absolutely sure they are safe. I have always worked stones and glass wet, whether cabbing or faceting. But was never taught anything about ventilation, and perhaps it’s not necessary! There is an article on here about ventilation, saying to have “adequate ventilation” for lapidary but of course not outlining what adequate ventilation means. Hence adding to my confusion. I hope I’m good to go…

Sonia

My lapidary shop is 800 sq.ft. in my basement, no special ventilation of any kind, just normal hvac.The amount of airborne particulates created by running wet is minimal at most, cabbing and faceting splatter iis the worst issue. No problems over 40 years.