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If you will be doing a lot of painting, the Hobby Air is probably the best bet. But that costs around $400. I rigged up a unit for about $130 that only has 2 minor problems, which I'll tell later. Here's what you do: 1. Pick up a little shop vac from Home Depot called a "Stinger". It sucks as well as blows; you need it for the blow function. 2. Go to an auto paint store & buy a painting hood. It has a plastic face shield, the hood is made of Tyvek & it has a tube going over the top of the head, venting just inside the lens. You can also buy peel off lenses that protect the lens & you just replace them as they get dirty. 3. From a swimming pool supplier, pick up a vaccuum hose, 1/1/2 inch in diameter. (If you use the 1 /14" which fits perfectly, the air flow is so great that it sets up a howl that will wake up the dead & make you deaf. A friend solved this by putting a 35mm film can in the hose & that cut down the flow enough to silence it.) 4. The vac comes with a little red spreader tool that goes on the end of the hose. Cut the spreader part off & you will have an adapter that will attach the shop vac hose to the 1 1/2" pool hose. Not needed for the 1 /14" hose. Other end of pool hose goes to hood and attaches with a hose clamp. 5. From a key shop, get a belt clip. Zip tie this to the pool hose just below where it attaches to the hood. Use an old belt around your chest, clip the hose to the belt to support the hose to keep it from pulling the hood off your head. Now, the shop vac blows clean, filtered air thru the hoses and inflates the hood, giving you a continuous supply of fresh air. Never use the vac for anything else or you'll start breathing dust. The only problems I have with the setup are that: 1. When you move your head up or down, the hood stays in place. Hasn't been much of a problem so far, but when it does, I'll probably take an old baseball cap, cut the bill off and pin the hood to the cap. 2. On a sunny day, the air going thru the hoses heats up & you are getting blasted with hot air. The system works great & only costs about $130.
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