Thinking of Winter Welding

What kind of welding?

MIG - shielded and flux core, but mostly shielded. It's a small welder - 120VAC, 20A.

Where are you located? I have a rig I used to use a lot but since I switched to MIG I don't anymore.

Grant Erwin Kirkland, Washington

Just weld with it. Not many fumes.

Grant

Couple of hundred CFM (like a bathroom fan) would probably suffice for MIG. The blower from an old clothes dryer might work great, and it's designed to work with vent pipe that can go to outside from a basement.

Fluxcore does generate a fair volume of smoke. Try it, see how smokey it gets in your space while it's still warm enough to air it out with a big fan.

Measure the length, width and height of your basement to figure out the cube (l X w X h). Then decide how often you need to change the air (every minute, every five, etc) and get a blower that will move air at that rate. Of course, you are going to have to have an intake SOMEWHERE so that that cold, fresh, outside air can replace what you've removed.

Jim

On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:46:13 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Grant Erwin quickly quoth:

Bad karma, Grant. _Any_ smoke in the house is bad smoke. A new or used range hood/fan would work great for Bennet's needs and his family (and doctor) will thank him for its installation.

Bennet, diffuse the incoming air so it doesn't disburse the gases from the welder.

-- Who is wise? He that learns from every One. Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody. -- Benjamin Franklin

All welding produces toxic fumes. Some is "just" smoke, other stuff will make you sick or cause cancer. ALL of it is dangerous with long exposures.

The thing is, it is better to build a hood where when you are welding, the smoke is drawn out the hood quickly. A fan can be put under also to create a positive air flow. What this does is lessen the time to empty the smoke. If you just weld, the smoke goes into the entire basement. Now you have to dump all (or more) of that WARM air to get all the smoke out and replace it. Heating costs rise.

If you have a hood, you just vent it when you are welding, and you don't have to replace the entire volume. You can also have cold air ducted in for the positive feed, and you will have minimal WARM room air exhausted.

Welding in confined spaces is a no brainer. Let's make smoke and stand in it. What's wrong with this picture? How you lessen the exposure is the important part here.

Now, if you're rich, and don't mind what it is going to cost you to heat your basement every two hours, please e mail me, as I have some financial schemes I think you will find interesting.

Steve, welder since 1974 certified lunatic certified welder, too

You've received very good suggestions for venting. Venting is definitely needed because you won't generally feel the effects of the smoke immediately, but the health risks are well documented. There is probably (required by law, I believe) a MSDS sheet glued to the spool of welding wire when it's purchased.

I have welded in a basement shop, and right at the top of the list for safety equipment is a suitable and adequate fire extinguisher mounted within easy reach (no more than a couple of steps away, mounted on a column with easy access from any direction and no clutter in the way, in my case) .

In addition to the fire extinguisher, I always want to have at least one large trigger spray bottle with water for for small ohShit moments like catching a ball of hot splatter in a wrinkle of clothing or some other minor incident requiring rapid/quick spot cooling. They both accompany me when I'm soldering plumbing, too.

It would be very bad practice to leave the welding area immediately after welding.

The point of having a replenishing air supply is particularly vital if there are gas appliances in the structure. Creating a negative pressure indoors can draw carbon monoxide into the occupied space.

Homes/buildings with gas appliances need to be monitored with at least a couple of CO detectors/alarms, and there isn't any rational reason for not having them (and testing them).

Having all of the proper safety equipment and an adequate amount of the proper tools will make the welding practice/experience sessions much more enjoyable, and most likely allow you to achieve your best performance (and make the skill gaining experience much easier).

WB ......... metalworking projects

The room you weld in HAS TO HAVE totally sealed and properly drywall walls and ceiling, primed and painted to protect the paper outer layer. There is both radiant heat, flying sparks, and flying white- hot weld metal "dingleberries" that can catch walls and ceilings on fire.

All access hatches in the walls and ceilings for plumbing or HVAC need to be non-combustible metal.

I would suggest fire sprinklers for the basement room you will be welding in, even if you buy the heads from McMaster and braze up a system yourself out of copper pipe. Flow switch and alarm bell, and a shutoff ball valve & drain valves for repairs.

I'll do this when I build the little closet around my air compressor

- too much heat in too small a space is a recipe for trouble.

For fumes, if you will be working on little projects on a welding table, they make tables with a grid top and a pan to catch the slag - and you can easily attach a duct on the bottom and suck the fumes down through the table top and outside.

Make the first few feet of the duct with the solid sheet-steel duct or segmented elbows turning to go up the back wall, in case any dingleberries get inside - they'll melt right through vinyl dryer ducting, and the aluminum foil flex duct won't last too much longer.

They make "Inline" or "Duct Booster" fans that splice into a section of 4" (dryer) ducting, and can handle some reasonable static pressures. Send the fumes outside like you would rig up a dryer exhaust. And put a range hood over the table to get the fumes that still insist on going up.

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