Supplied Air Hood Type???

Now for the $64 question. what hood do I want? I will need hopefully only one and will use the system for painting with iso's, sandblasting and working in my dusty wood shop. I am leaning towards the sandblast hood system but need further convincing that it will protect me during my painting sessions. I am assuming that the paint hood offers more skin protection than the sandblaster hood, and will it really be worth it considering that I will not be painting very frequently or for long periods?

I don't see how the paint hood would provide more skin protection than the blast hood. Anyway, I'd look to something other than the fresh air system for skin protection beyond the obvious face protection provided by any of the hoods. My concern with the blast hood would be the real possibility that the long "cape" would be hard to keep from getting onto the fresh paint. You'll have enough trouble dragging two hoses around w/o them getting tangled, or onto the paint. The occasional stepping on the air hose and having your breathing air cutoff momentarily is always a surprise distraction from concentrating on the actual painting process. You don't need still another distraction caused by the cape. One drag of that cape onto fresh paint and a mess will be had. I fail to see any big advantage of the cape that can't be accomplished in other ways, independent of the hood. My tendency would be to try and make either the bumpcap or the tyvek hood do double duty as a blast hood also, although I don't know about the longevity of the tyvek when used for blasting. No matter which hood you choose, make sure you get a plentiful supply of peel-off lens protectors. Sandblasting will destroy the visibility of an unprotected lens in no time at all.

Rod

I don't disagree with you. It's always nice to have a dedicated tool for any particular task. However, that's not always feasible economically for most DIYs. I took the question to mean if only one hood was possible for both tasks, which one would it be? I wouldn't want to be painting with that cape dangling around. If cost is not a consideration, sure, get separate hoods - one for painting and the other for blasting. That would be the ideal situation.

Rod