MIG at home garage legality

Operating a business could be a bigger problem.

None. Set up a huge noise smelly shop and there may be issues. Don't observe good fire safety precautions (i.e. put a wooden welding bench up against a wall without drywall) _and_ get a complaint to the local fire martial, and you'll have issues.

Running a business is a gray area -- you should get a variance to do that in most towns, but in most towns if it doesn't show from outside your house, and you don't have any real retail traffic, and no neighbors complain, then you won't have a problem.

Now: be really stupid with fire safety, and burn your place down -- then you may find your _insurance_ claim denied. But that won't have anything to do with the town. Anyway, you want to use a metal bench, and keep flammables away, and do your welding in a room with nice thick sheetrock on the walls and all that good stuff -- right?

If I was in a spaceship headed to Mars, I would definitely appreciate having a fire martial aboard. Especially if I had a welder on that spaceship.

Which kind of brings up a question, can one weld in weightlessness.

Maybe spot welding and friction welding. I'm betting agaist MIG.

Oh, since I'm assuming we are in space in some sort of vessel, what is the atmosphere we working with?

Wes

Maybe not MIG -- maybe just go outside, make sure everything is clean, and do _unshielded_ metal-arc welding in the vacuum. Seems like welding inside would crap up the atmosphere pretty quick, although if you just had to I suppose you'd need to.

Maybe before we go to Mars NASA needs to develop a JB Weld that'll work in a vacuum.

SMAW may be needed, and work, in a vacuum. It would be handy to add the neato alloying elements that come from the stick coating, but I bet you'd need special coatings to work.

It all depends on your neighborhood. If you are close to neighbors, they might object to the sparks and noise and smoke. Basically, you can do anything you can get away with. But once a call has been made to zoning or the FD, it's on file, and after that, you're subject to fines.

As for asking permission, it is a bad idea, and I am sure they would tell you no. Some standard issues are: you cannot keep "stock in trade" at your home; you cannot increase the traffic to the neighborhood; you need to be cleared by the FD (which will be impossible); you need to be licensed, and what you want to do is considered manufacturing, and a residential zone cannot be a manufacturing zone.

"claiming some sort of residential fire hazard?" Melting metal past its melting point is definitely a fire hazard, and dangerous even in a properly equipped shop.

Unless you live in a rural area, or have a shop removed from the house, or just have good neighbors, it doesn't sound like your idea is plausible. The first time someone makes a phone call, it's all over. And SHOULD you have some accidental fire and FD comes out and finds the cause, you can be fined pretty severely.

Steve

If you can weld upside-down (overhead) you can weld in weightlessness.

Bill K7NOM

the atmosphere we

Hand held electron beam welding. I always thought it would be fun to have a tube transmitter in space with no envelopes on the tubes.

Jimmie

Never ask for permission, they might get the idea that they have the power to grant or deny it.

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission" is often attributed to Grace Hopper. The lady and officer had a clue.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Good question, Iggy! I was the Facility Manager for NASA's Zero Gravity Research Facility during the 1990s. We supported the Combustion Science and Fluid Physics branches. I don't believe I ever heard any mention of a welding experiemnt, I think you could get a grant or two out of that idea!

There were some molten alloy experiments (not at our facility, they took too long), but they were concerned with the solidification process, which can produce dentrites (metal hairs within the pool). In general alloys mix better because the heavier elements do not sink and they were seeking super alloys because of the better distribution.

Welding in low Gs would certainly be different. There would of course be the tendency for the pool to float away, but the cooling metal would be driven by various forces like the arc blow, surface tension, etc instead of gravity. It would cool slower because of the lack of convection.

I have never had a problem. I do try not to make a lot of noise before about 8 am and stopped about 8 pm. With MIG you should have almost no smoke or sparks and very little noise, but bashing the stainless into shape before welding could be a problem.

It isn't as if you are going to be making a lot more noise than a lawn mower or leaf blower.

Dan

Maybe even easier to weld in space. Outside that is. No shielding gas required. Maybe some flux depending on the material. Biggest problem would be weighlessness. the weld pool may not pool. Just float away from the welding pressures.

So now we need an external centrifuge to create artificial gravity. So far so good. Better get a good welders coat for the space suit, it would stink to get a bit of splatter melting though the suit.

Wes

One tip, don't tell your neighbors what you are doing. You never know when one knows he missed his chance to be part of the Schutzstaffel and you are his chance to revel in the perceived glory of being a defender of the 'nothing is allowed unless it is approved thinking' we are sliding into by complaining to the authorities (bureaucrats).

After running your MIG, don't just head into the house. Take some time to say in the garage to make sure you didn't start the makings of a fire.

When I had a welder, I did it outside of the garage with the doors shut. Too darn many things inside the garage to catch fire or smolder.

You sound like a candidate for living outside the town. Life is a bit less regulatory out there.

Oh, post links to pictures of your sculpture when you finish one. We like seeing metalworking when we are not arguing about other things.

Wes

The arc needs gas to sustain itself, no? I thought that vacuum was not able to conduct any current.

My insurance specifies no welding within 25 feet of the buildings.

Wear your space suit and go outside and get some perfect non contaminated welds... Just don't burn a hole in your suit. :)

John

I have never had a problem. I do try not to make a lot of noise before about 8 am and stopped about 8 pm. With MIG you should have almost no smoke or sparks and very little noise, but bashing the stainless into shape before welding could be a problem.

It isn't as if you are going to be making a lot more noise than a lawn mower or leaf blower.

Dan

I lived in a neighborhood and did ornamental metal out of my garage before I went into business. No one complained, and it was a "tight" neighborhood, meaning the houses were close together.

So, you may do it, and have no problems. The issue starts when ANYONE calls zoning and starts any paperwork. Or, God forbid, you have a fire.

Thinking back on it now, I had some great neighbors because you know how much racket a chop saw makes, and I was doing a lot of work.

Keep it reasonable, keep it out of sight as much as possible, and hope for the best. And don't weld at night. It's a dead give-away.

Almost no smoke or sparks from MIG and very little noise?

Steve

What's that Lassie? You say that Steve B fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Fri, 9 Apr 2010 16:12:17 -0700:

Right. The major problem is the selling. If you were just making things for yourself, doing home repairs, etc. you would be OK. If you had a steel beam in your garage that needed welding and you called in someone to fix it, you would be OK. Big welding truck, engine driven welder, sparks all over.

If you were sewing dolls for a craft fair, you would be OK.

But welding is thought of as an industrial process so you might run into problems.

Don't ask, don't tell. Keep quiet, cover the windows, fireproof as much as you can.