Safety

Pottery clay makes a lot of fine dust and powdered glaze is a dust cloud waiting to happen.  Reducing dust becomes a critical issue to keep the room clean and for your health.  Develop the habit of wet sponge cleaning all surfaces near the wheel at the end of the day.  A 20 inch box fan with micro furnace filter (Merv 8) is used clean the air.   It is positioned so it blows dust free air towards the pottery wheel.  The filter is rated for pollen and spores.  I have my fan on a timer so it run between the hours of 7 am and 9 pm.  Tie the filter to fan with a piece of string.  The airflow with fan on setting 2 and a new filter is 200 cfm and a used filter (30 days) is 160 cfm.  Dust generated by sanding and grinding within 14 inches of fan can be seen flowing towards the filter.    Clean filter weekly by tapping a hard surface outdoors and replace every 90 days.  It is amazing how much is collected in the filter.   The fan/filter has become my sanding and grinding station.  

I also use 3M N95 dust masks with 2 straps when handling dry clay components for mixing.  True Value Hardware has a box of 20 at a reasonable price.  The mask can be worn several times before needing to be replaced.