What kind of respirator is required for plasma cutting ? ventilation etc???
I wear a 3M 7502 respirator with 2097 filters (the pink pancake style) for all my cutting, grinding,welding. affordable,comfortable to wear for long periods.
I usually run my table for an hour or two (sometimes three or four on & off) at the front of my garage with the door open so there’s lots of ventilation. I also have the water table which helps to catch a lot of the dust and fumes. So I use a Miller half-mask that my son recommended from when he was welding. It’s $25 on Amazon and has two replaceable filters. It’s got a low profile design so if you wear a face shield it will fit under.
I didn’t go with anything more extreme because unlike manual cutters or welders, we’re not sitting there with our faces inches from the burning metal. I tend to be walking around the table watching it cut so I can grab a tip-up if needed so I’m getting plenty of airflow and I’m not really in the path of dust/fumes, especially with the water table.
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I also use and recommend the miller half mask. It works great! I also wore it all last summer when the smoke from the BC, and California wildfires was so thick it blotted out the sun. Sure saves alot of black boogers.
Another 3M, 2097 filter user here. Been using them for years. Other than making your boogers as hard as dross, no more black boogers at the end of the day.
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I grabbed the Miller mask, https://www.millerwelds.com/safety/respiratory/half-mask-respirators-m00469#!/?product-options-title=lpr-100-half-mask-respirator-m-l-ml00895
Seems to do the trick pretty good. No headaches, no black boogers. 
I do have a fan blowing outside (even in the winter), but it doesn’t keep my shop from getting pretty smoky/cloudy after a couple of hours of cutting. There’s a layer of yuck on everything… I’m shopping for a fume extractor to try to eliminate that.
-Ben
You should always wear some kind of respirator if you in the same room. What a lot of people don’t under stand is all that metal dust is also getting in the computer, plasma cutter, controller, motors, etc. and laying on all the PC boards. You need to blow them all out once a week or it will short thing out. Also if you have an alarm system it will cause trouble with it (ask me how I know).
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I know this is an old thread, figured couldn’t hurt to share. I picked up a two pack of full-face mask things and a couple flip up shade 6 do-dads from Amazon. I think I have $52 bucks in each one. Mounting the flip up to the mask was a bit of hack, but it works well. Yet another reason I need a 3D printer…as I could have made a couple legit brackets. Going to have to pull that trigger one day soon.
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Someone cough cough really should make a PAPR to compete with the 3M at a hobbyist level of investment, using regularly available rechargable Li-ion bat packs (milwaukee m12’s mebbe?").
I’ve been tinkering with one for a while, but finding a fan that can spin the rippums to create the necessary head pressure for a 1/2-3/4” tube for the air feed at 12-24v is proving impossibru.
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Could repurposed a product like this
18-Volt Compact Blower 18-Volt Compact Blower
Increase the hose size to reduce static pressure. Try 1.5 “ . Get those static pressure gain where you can.
You will want a centrifugal fan for this project. A vane axial will not work for you.
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