# How to make your own gas mask



## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

This is one smart lady!


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Thank you for sharing this!

I have been watching her Youtube videos. I have probably watched most of them, and some of them twice. I need to catch up on her recent videos.

Not only is she smart, she is willing to put her ideas into action. If you watch her videos, you can see the shelters she has built and her work to be self sufficient. She is now self supporting by the money she makes from her videos on Youtube. That in and of itself is very smart!

She had a helicopter drop her off at an island where she lived for a while (week or two) and lived self sufficiently until the scheduled pick up.

Gas mask? I have wanted enough for family and have tried to figure out how to make them myself.


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

You don't have to make your own gas masks .. I am a real hard a$$ about protective gear, having used almost every conceivable type of protective gear professionally.

So I am dead set against the surplus masks and I will comment on that more in a paragraph or two

This is what I carry EDC http://www.shepherdsurvival.com/readi-mask-adult/ this is how they are used 



 this is how they work 




They are good against your basic tear gas and pepper sprays and most any particulate type stuff the smoke and dust of a building collapse and in a limited way in a fire.. they are good against most of the smoke they are not good against all the possible toxic gases that can be generated by some things that may be burning in a building they do not supply oxygen .. so in a fire you do all the normal things stay low being the biggy . only now you can see and breath the good air down low as you eave the area or even drive away in your car out of the tear gas . the Readi Mask is a one time use item but they are cheap 6 or 7 bucks I buy them by the case the link I provided for where to buy is one of the cheaper suppliers and click on the buy in bulk thingy right under the buy now button and you will see they are a buck off for two or more they come in sizes, including children's sizes .

all for building your own most stuff things but getting good gear in this case is actually better and cheaper by the time you fiddle fart around gathering all the ingredients to build something you can't carry in your pocket and that doesn't look like it would fit even in the glove compartment

Okay, now , about surplus gas masks .. real gas masks/ military protective masks have service life limits and almost all the ones you see for cheap also usually have a caveat of for collectors only and they are not advertised for actual use Even if the headline advertisements says "protect your whole family against the zombie apocalypse" they mean exactly that.. if you use them for something else you have no guarantee that they will protect you against anything else. Seriously real masks, really sold to really protect you, will specifically state what the filters will protect you from exactly. most cheap surplus masks come with maybe training filter good for riot agents but filters also have a shelf life.. and that shelf life starts on the day the filter was made, not the day the sealed container was opened.

You should never cut open a filter like they did in the video in the OP . Real gas mask filters, especially for war gasses don't use activated charcoal they use doped activated charcoal with specific chemicals that interact with war gasses and that breakdown over time and either become inactive or by interaction become toxic themselves

http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i49/Building-Better-Gas-Mask.html http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Gas-Mask.html

here is a partial list of surplus gas masks and some of the hazards they present http://www.approvedgasmasks.com/defective-masks.htm

Just to take it one step further here are what fresh in date standard filters cost and what the various types of agents they filter http://www.approvedgasmasks.com/gas-filters.htm nobody is going to throw in a free in date filter they will throw in a sealed or factory sealed filter that is out of date and not legal to sell advertised as protection from anything . and unless you know exactly what the filter filters you may be totally unprotected

yes some surplus masks are better than nothing , some are the same as nothing and some, the ones with out of date asbestos or chromium filters can be a greater danger than somethings you are trying to protect yourself against. It is your or your loved ones lives , if you want to throw the dice, I'm not going to argue with you or try to stop you beyond presenting the facts as I know them, so don't bother trying to justify the surplus junk your bought to me.. sorry, used to play that game when I presented the facts on other forums and panels, you will not convince me and if the facts I have presented don't convince you , it's not my problem.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/gasmasks/

but in any case never cut open a gas mask filter yes it looks like activated charcoal .. but it is treated or doped with some nasty chemicals that neutralize even nastier chemicals and everything is sealed in so it is safe to use and handle .

taking this to the next level a entire horror show of toxic agents travel on our roads and rails they are placarded you can learn what the placards mean here http://phmsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/PHMSA/DownloadableFiles/Files/Hazmat/ERG2012.pdf this includes the hazards each cargo presents what to do for both the public and first responders and what protective gear you need

Protective masks and other gear are worthless unless worn and donned in a timely matter

first you must identify existing hazards in your area https://ofmpub.epa.gov/apex/cimc/f?...ue|true|true|true|true|true||-1|sites|N|basic and then you identify industries using hazardous materials using the map in this article http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/west-texas-hazardous-chemical-map

Once you know the hazards you can get the gear to protect yourself you have to have some way to know if a hazard condition has developed .. depending on how close or far you live from stationary know hazards radio or TV may be enough , there may be sirens or other public warning systems or you may have to buy a meter if you live close to a hazard which is expensive https://www.google.com/search?q=hza...ie=&oe=#q=hazardous+chemical+detection+meters and you have to have them set to detect local hazards .. the proper thing to always do is evacuate even if you have the protective gear.. because the next trick is knowing when it is all clear. the meter can tell you that.. but you may need to decontaminate yourself or car or even your home before you can use them.. if you leave and get a hotel room in a safe place the people who contaminated you should normally decontaminate you, but that might take a while depending on how big an area they contaminated .

One more map http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php interactive map of all current disasters and calamities going on anywhere on earth ..you can zoom in on your location or monitor volcanoes in Greenland forest fires in Brazil biological hazards in Canada whatever, in real time.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

weedygarden said:


> ...I have been watching her Youtube videos.....


I too am impressed about her abilities. Her first cold night in her shelter, next vid was on the improvements.


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## zacharyswift854 (Jun 25, 2021)

A homemade gas mask should be impermeable to any material other than the air you exhale, and be good at filtering out particulates.
What you need:
-Can of large size paint (quality does not matter)
-Painter's Tape or duct tape (alternative method is pinching fabric on either side of goggles with beads of super glue)
-Can opener or scissors are used for cutting off bottom rings from can. 
-Piece of brown paper to act as filter in front of breathing hole."


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

I use a rubber monkey from desert storm, pity there are no more filters, I'm upgrading soon to the new GI.


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