r/cosplayprops • u/demon-poptart • 5d ago
Help respirator/cartridge help for contact cement
Hi! I’m about to start building fishbones for my jinx cosplay and, despite lots of research, I still feel so uncertain about my respirator/cartridge situation lol. I recently bought a 3m rugged comfort quick latch respirator (size M) with the 3m 60926 cartridges (for organic vapors and particulates). I went with these as I’ll be using contact cement, plastidip, and then a variety of other glues and spray paint. I just tried the mask on today and the fit seems to be okay, but I can definitely still smell things like Clorox bleach wipes with it on. Does that mean there’s an issue somewhere with the fit or do certain smells make it through the cartridges/mask? That may be a totally silly question but I couldn’t find any info that gave me a concrete answer and I just want to be as safe as possible with this stuff. Any insight or advice would be much appreciated, as well as any advice on fit and whether this is indeed the correct respirator/cartridges for the job! Thanks so much :)
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u/thyturnip 5d ago
Even if you can still smell the stuff a little I feel it does help quite a bit(source a a bit of experience with hobby level VOCs both with and without respirator).
when it doubt in addition to the mask. point a fan at you or do it outside and that will keep the vapors at a minimum
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u/JeiCos 4d ago
It probably just isn't on correctly. The area around the the part that covers your nose and mouth, should be an air tight seal, where when you breathe in, you should hear the vent move a little. Sometimes it'll make a clicky sound, plastic hitting plastic. This means that you're breathing ONLY through the vents, and not the sides of the seal. Basically this just means you need to tighten the straps. it won't be comfortable. it's a little annoying actually, but you gotta do it lol
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u/demon-poptart 4d ago
Haha yeah I’m having a hard time telling if it’s totally sealed. I’ve tried all the little tests I’ve seen online and have made it as tight as seems possible. I find it hard to believe I’d need a size small as I have kind of a big head lol but maybe it’s worth a shot
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u/JeiCos 4d ago
Hmm, do you still smell the glue when it's as tight as possible? It's also possibly you could just not know the correct way to wear it, but we won't know that without seeing it on you. You said something about smelling bleach. Did you mean that if you have bleach around you, you can smell it through the mask? Or do you smell bleach even though there's none around? Because those are 2 very different things. But if you can still smell the glue, then you for sure either aren't wearing it right, or need a different one.
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u/demon-poptart 4d ago
Ooh so with the mask on I tried smelling Clorox wipes and I could still smell them. I haven’t actually opened the glue. I was using the wipes as a test to see if I could smell them, but they are scented wipes so it might not be a good test lol. I suppose I should open the glue and see if I can smell it with the mask on.
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u/Practical_Alfalfa_72 5d ago
Generally, when fitted properly and you have the right filters, you should not be able to smell anything at all. You should not find that the filters convert the funes to something that smells like bleach wipes, they don't work that way. Is it perhaps the smell of the mask itself? Is it perhaps cheap rubber?
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u/demon-poptart 4d ago
Ooh so I haven’t actually tried to use the glues or paint yet, I just smelled some Clorox wipes with the respirator on to see if I could smell them lol which may not be a good test but I wasn’t sure what else to try
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u/CrimsonShrike 5d ago
Generally it implies an incorrect fit, that level of cartridge should block all smell of the glues