Welding Indoors

[bcarlson]

Hello,

I have been doing quite a bit of welding indoors lately (it's stinking cold in Minnesota this time of year! ), and there tends to be a haze in the garage after I've gotten a ways. I am curious what anyone can tell me about the effects of breathing spent Argon/CO2, and/or whatever else is in that cloud... I suppose some of it is burnt oil from the steel pickling, etc.

Just trying to be cautious about long-term exposure to breathing nasty stuff...

Thanks,

Ben

Hi Ben, I am NO EXPERT on this subject and I too have welded "indoors" from time to time. What I suually do is to "blow out the garage" after welding. This wastes heated air, but I figure it's worth it.
The BEST APPROACH would be to use an air "scrubber" designed for exactly what you are doing. Industry surplus outifts might be a place to get one cheap. - That' smy plan, but I'm still looking.

Another approach might be to get one of those "air filtration" systems they sell for woodworkers shops. I'd bet you could swap out the factory filter for a charcoal lined one or series of them - That might be better than nothing.

Just thinking out loud


Jacin in Ohio

I think just a small exhaust vent above your welding area that vents to the outside would be good. I would like to find a good setup myself.

Originally Posted by ChadRat

I think just a small exhaust vent above your welding area that vents to the outside would be good. I would like to find a good setup myself.

That may be true, but to do that with any frequency where I'm at (snow covered Ohio) in January will prove quite expensive!

Jacin in Sno-hi-o

There are some very serious hazords to long term exposure to welding fumes and with some metals even short term. I have gotten very sick from not having any ventilation. Now i don't mess around. I have a 1200 cmf furnace fan blowing directly to the outside. In the winter this can really suck the heat out (faster than my 100,00btu furnace can keep up) but in the long run i am much safer.


scott

[Wray Schelin]

I 'm currently building a special dirty room in my shop. I used two existing walls in a corner, one of which already had an exhaust fan. On the other existing wall there is a window for fresh air intake. Both the exhaust fan and the window can be regulated to allow a full air flow tapering to zero flow. I then made one new wall and a partial upper wall for the last wall to close the room. The side with the partial upper wall will have a door that is 7' wide made from 1" sq tubing with skins of .025" thick aluminum sheet. The door will hinge at one end and also in the center, so you only have to open half the door to access the room which measures 8' sq.

The other interior walls will be skinned with 20 gage steel. Wth the door closed the room will not suck heated air out of my shop and all the dirty tasks can be done in the room without making a mess of my main shop. I could even sand blast in the room if I choose to. I will use it mostly for a paint spray booth for small parts and plasma cutting. It is a low buck solution to a lot of dirty and fume laden tasks. While working in the room itself it is best to use a fresh air supply mask. I probably won't install through the wall work gloves
but they would work good with a room like this, for say sandblasting large fenders and such.

Wray

[jvo]

Ben, I've just been reading the other post on plasma cutting a few minutes ago, then read yours here. I've also wondered about breathing spent gas fumes, as well as welding smoke. This past winter, I did a lot of migging and tigging, and quite often had a headache the next morning. Not a real bad headache, just enough to make me wonder if it was from the bad air. I don't have a positive ventilation system yet, either, and also do like Jacin does. Open up a 16 foot wide garage door even at -35*C outside to clear the air. It gets real cold real fast, but I have to in order to continue breathing. I got an old furnace that I cut down and plan on installing. Will this much air displacement cause problems with tig welding and pulling the gas away from the torch, kind of like welding in a small breeze? I know I need to do something. Getting nervous about health now. John V.O.

[Jeff Parker]

Lets see if the pics come up...

http://hotrodders.com/journal_photos...1079587390.jpg

http://hotrodders.com/journal_photos...0922364900.jpg

They are pics of my welding bench. I have considered hanging a range hood over the top, with the vent going outside to reduce the dirt/noxious fumes.


The pics come out small, but you can get the idea. All the slag goes to the sheetmetal box on the bottom.

if you cant for some reason vent your work area, you can buy a resperator welding hood combo. they work well and use replacable cartriges. places like grainger sell them for between $200 and $300. but you still need to have some sort of air turn over. they are not oxygen supplied.
Fred

[Boogiemanz1]

Hey Jeff, I like your welding table a lot. I had not considered the collection portion. That table would be good for cutting and welding. Too bad that a guy couldn't use some sort of dust collector off the back side or the top. Delta makes a shop air system that is supposed to clean the air, I wonder if anyone has tried something like this...........john

http://www.internationaltool.com/indexair.htm