Eye/mouth protection?

[Woodythepecker]

The Trend Airshield has a polycarbonate visor which will protect your eyes and face to BSEN166 standards.

Regards

Woody

 

[Noel]

Roger, I've used the Aircap a few times as a friend has one but I've only tried on the Trend. Aircap is lighter and more comfortable and I think has a longer lasting battery (8 hrs?). Admittedly the Aircap does look a bit odd because of it's baseball cap design compared to the more futuristic Trend but if I ever buy one it would be the Aircap.

Noel

 

[cd]

Hi,
Can anyone confirm if the batteries/charger for the trend airshield are the sort that can be left charging until you need them (trickle charge ?) or will this damage them. I'm close to buying one but I'm not too good at turning chargers off after the required time


Calv, hope you don't mind me sneaking this into you thread !

Thanks
cd

 

[CHJ]

Hi,
Can anyone confirm if the batteries/charger for the trend airshield are the sort that can be left charging until you need them (trickle charge ?) or will this damage them. I'm close to buying one but I'm not too good at turning chargers off after the required time


Calv, hope you don't mind me sneaking this into you thread !

Thanks
cd

Don't know about leaving them on charge indefinitely, (will try and check current when charged) but I usually leave mine on overnight and so far the batteries are holding up. I put the charger in a prominent place in the kitchen and just unplug the battery first time I grab a cup of coffee in the morning.

Edit:By the way the socket on the charger is c**p, robustly made but poorly engineered, the negative contact is the chrome plated outer shell of the socket assembly which is a loose fit and has no spring contact, the slightest movement of the battery can result in no charging taking place. Status is indicated by a light on the charger unit but if someone else disturbs the setup it can be missed. See later post for a correction on this comment.

For all my other batteries that do not tolerate soaking or have poor quality chargers I have all the chargers hooked up to a timeswitch I managed to acquire that has removable pins for switch on/off. I have only one pin for "off" left in it and just crank it round to give a 4/5 hour on period and then can forget it as it never switches back on as most of them do that have fixed cams.

 

[ydb1md]

Eye protection and dust masks certainly have their place but if you can capture the dust at the source, you've won the fight.

What sort of dust control do you have in your shop? Are the things that you sand small enough to fit on a dedicated sanding table that has dust collection?

If you use a random orbit sander, they usually spit the dust out in one direction. A dust hood and some strategically placed dust deflectors (boards, cardboard, etc) can do a great job of capturing the dust as it spins off of your sander.

If hand planes are an option, they produce almost zero dust, depending on the wood being worked.

 

[CHJ]

Fed up with the poor performance of the Trend charger/battery connection this evening I decided to investigate further.

On checking more thoroughly the socket on the charger I detected an attempt to form a contact strip deep in the housing, the current battery connection did not reach this.

I stripped the battery housing,

and found that the connector had come adrift from the battery to which it had been stuck (with a glue gun?) checks showed that glue will not adhere satisfactorily to the battery plastic shrink sleeve.
This resulted in the Plug moving back into the housing.
Further checks however proved that the plug would not engage the socket contact even when in original position.

I removed approx 2mm of plastic from the inside of the plug locating collar on the end cap and secured it in position with thin masking tape and reassembled.


It now engages with the charger negative contact: Just!


Apologies to Calv for hogging your thread but I thought I had better correct my earlier condemnation of this part of the Trend kit, which by the way I find excellent in use.

 

[Freetochat]

Looking at the powered Airshield, can anyone advise how costly they find the running costs in filters etc.

 

[CHJ]

Looking at the powered Airshield, can anyone advise how costly they find the running costs in filters etc.

Mine has only been in use regularly since May this year but it shows no sign of needing filter replacement as of now, it gets a once over externally with the shop vacuum (small bore) after each days use to remove any large external particles and anything else that might be moved on a reverse flow basis. The inner (fine) filter pad is showing a slight discoloration on its outer face.

I do have a fairly robust dust removal from the lathe head and use a vacuum with the tailed router and planer though.

 

[cd]

Thanks for the info Chas,
Ordered one today, long overdue I think but its always easier to spend on shiny tools and nice wood than dust masks

For all my other batteries that do not tolerate soaking or have poor quality chargers I have all the chargers hooked up to a timeswitch

Excellent idea I'm sure I have one of those old pin/cam type timers somewhere so I'll give it a go

cd

 

[CHJ]

The following info. gained from checks on the Trend Airshield Battery Pack.

The Battery pack is made up of 3 * 1.2 volt 1200 ma cells. (Nominal 3.6 volt total)

Immediately the pack is placed on charge:
The voltage rises to 4.18 volt. With a current of 90 ma. then drops to 80 ma within a short period.

After 14 hrs on charge;
The pack voltage registers 4.40 volt. With a current still at 80 ma.

The pack registers 4.13 volts off load 1 hour after taking off charger.

The charger is rated at 4.35 volt but goes up nearer 12 volt off load.

On the basis of the above figures then I would conclude that it would not be prudent to leave the pack on charge in excess of 15 hours. (1200 / 80ma)

 

[CHJ]

If you have problems with your Trend Battery Pack you may be due a replacement. I suspect the one I have has this defect reported on WC.