On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 02:34:49 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 23:03:20 GMT, T i m wrote:

It looks like it was made from 6mm thick MDF and I asked her if anyone
was required to wear a face mask whilst cutting it and apparently no
one was?

There is never any blanket need "to wear masks". There is a
requirement to reduce exposure to an appropriate level. If you can
achieve this by ventilation appropriate to the dust source being
generated, then you don't need to mask up as well.

A scroll saw is a narrow kerf saw, cutting a small amount of material
and without distributing it into an aerosol. It's also usual for
scroll saws to have built-in dust blowers which can direct this dust
away from the operator.

I'd have no hesitation in scrollsawing MDF without a mask. Under some
conditions I'd even run it through a sawbench (mine only has gravity
dust control) because that too is a reasonably low-dust process. For
routing though it's quite a different situation - lots of dust, and
it's sprayed right up at the operator.


And is a "Hegna Saw" any good?

Hegener. They're definitely high end scrollsaws (although the paint
flakes off in great patches). To be honest, any scrollsaw will work
pretty well. The only real benefits of a Hegener are lower vibration
and a motor that doesn't mind running for 8 hours continuously.

Hi all and thanks for the replies and info.

I wasn't 'worried' as such by my daughters exposure to the MDF dust (I
guessed the levels would be pretty low) I just wondered (knowing how
cautious educators were these days) if they should?

I'm lucky that I'm not allergic to anything I know of and can work
with stuff like glass fibre with no reaction. Howevrer if I feel I'm
being surrounded by 'floating' particulates I will either ensure I
breathe through my nose and shallow breathe, get out of the area till
the dust settles or get a mask ;-)

Out of interest I have been using one of those aggressive wire brushes
(twists of coat hanger sized wire on an angle grinder) to de-rust
various items re my kitcar 'upgrade' and that dust seems to get
everywhere and hangabout a bit?

Any particular (no pun intended) risk with this type of dust please?

All the best ..

T i m