Reddit reviews 3M 6200 Half Mask for Use With 6000 Series Cartridges, Face Piece

Well, let's start from the top and work our way down

"Tactical" shemagh

Dune sclera lenses

3M 6200 half mask

Torch goggles

3 yards of fabric for the cloak

Tunic that I got from a ren faire years ago

550 cord

Avatar knife plus a coat of white paint

Thai fisherman pants

And the base layer, an open face Zentai suit

Plus my old desert combat boots. I also had a nose tube that I made with a bread bag clip, electrical tape, and 550 cord, which is obviously not shown here and could definitely be made much better with a proper septum clip.

Edit: And a handful of random washers as water rings.

>Is there any magic perfect mask out there?

No

>I'm just starting out in woodworking so I'm hesitant to spend the big bucks on a good mask...

This is what I use and would recommend. It's excellent for dust, and you can pop on the organic vapor cartridges for when you are using chemicals.

>I wear glasses, so I have to not only avoid fogging, but also one that sits comfortably with the glasses and doesn't push them up.

Me too. But a lot of times I wear goggles over my glasses as they are not safety rated. The 3M respirator doesn't interfere or fog up

> get uncomfortable easy. Lots of masks either push the glasses up, or push hard on my nose. I'm worried about full face masks as well for comfort and visibility.

This is an area where you're just going to have to put your big boy pants on. A rubber mask with filters hanging off of it strapped tightly to your face in 2 directions isn't comfortable. These aren't supposed to be comfy. Some are better than others. The one I linked doesn't bother me any more than it should, and sometimes I wear it for hours. You know what's more uncomfortable? COPD

>I have asthma and allergies, making some masks hard to breath inside as it restricts too much air flow.

A proper respirator like the 3M will still let you breathe as easily as possible as long as the filters are clean. Avoid the half useless RZ style masks that seem to be really popular.

>have a beard which I feel must mess up some of the sealing of the masks (although its a short beard, not sure how much of a problem this is)

Big problem. I do as well. Even with the mask as tight as I can get it, I'm still blowing walnut snots after a ton of sanding. The only thing that's going to work with a beard is a diving helmet or something like a Trend Airshield. Which is about as compact and comfortable as a diving helmet.

What you need to do is be super anal about dust collection. That means buying tools that are capable of excellent dust collection (Festool for example)

If you're going to use a paper dust-mask, you need one with a "down-firing exhaust". But, I'm going to go ahead and suggest you upgrade to a respirator with filters. They're more comfortable, get a better seal against your face, have replaceable filters, and universally have forward or down-firing exhausts. By the time you've used a handfull of dust masks, the respirator is cheaper too.

My go-to respirator is the 3M 6000 series - they come in small, medium, and large - but you want a medium unless you have really weird facial proportions. You'll need to pair it with some filters, they're available in P95 and P100. Personally I find the P95 filters are more than good enough for me.

There's a whole 3M respirator ecosystem though - I'm going to shamelessly link to a nice-long comment on selecting the respirator components and the resulting discussion.

edit: My wife wears a 3M 6100 (the small) with prescription glasses without issue and I wear a 6200 with generic poly-carbonate safety glasses and find it quite comfortable.

$40 you say?

If you’re willing to spend about $5 more you can even get quick release and an exhale deflector