Respirator help

[Jamie Unden]

When I am working with exotic woods, I would like to use a full-face respirator. I bought one a long time ago, but since my eye-sight has waned over the years I don't know how to adapt it so I can wear my glasses inside. Any thoughts?

[Bob Gramann]

Contact lenses?

[Jamie Unden]

Eeeww - tried them once, hated them.

[Peter Wilcox]

If it's just near-vision glasses ("reading glasses") that you wear when working, you can possibly find some small framed ones with the diopter setting you need at the dollar store or discount store that might fit inside the mask. But if you are myopic (near sighted) these won't work. Be sure to take the respirator with you to the store to make sure they fit under it, and wear it while you check out.
If you need correction for distance too, as in bifocals or trifocals, there may be small frames you can find at the optician, but that will cost the price of new glasses.

[Bob Gramann]

If you have a sacrificial pair of glasses, you could take the temples off and attach it to the inside of the mask at the bridge of the frames. If the frames are thick plastic, you can drill and screw through the frame at the bridge to attach them to a stiff strap that is glued or screwed to the faceplate of the mask.

[Jamie Unden]

I have to wear progressives and I have an astigmatism. The problem is not really that they don't fit inside, it's that the temple pieces get pinched by the rubber. I thought about what Bob said, but I don't have any recent throw-away glasses I can play with. Maybe I can cut the rubber a little bit where the temple pieces go through.

[Bob Gramann]

Or drill the face mask gasket slightly smaller than the temple size so you can push the temples through the holes and put the glasses on with the mask without losing the air seal where the temples penetrate.

[Jamie Unden]

That's a great idea Bob!

[Alain Lambert]

3M is selling a frame that fit inside the mask and you can have your prescription installed in it.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... 056&rt=rud

[Jamie Unden]

I got Bob's idea to work.

[Jason Brown]

You can get glasses inserts. They fit on a wire frame and just spring fit inside the face mask. I use a pair at my day job as a hazardous waste receiving chemist. Just check with the respirator manufacturer. They normally carry inserts.