Exhausting welding fumes?

[MMiller]

Hey Guys,

I have a 20x25 garage with an 8' ceiling, that I do my truck repairs in. It is cold outside, so the doors are shut and heat is on.



When I weld much, or when my son is practicing his welding, the shop gets real smokey. The large shops I work in have tubes to drop over stacks when starting engines. When we weld at work, we usually put a tube down near our welding area, and viola the smoke goes outside. I don't want to spend many $$$$, so does anybody have a cheap way with a tube and small fan to evacuate a little smoke from welding. Something I can move around to varios areas, as I weld on trucks, under trucks, etc. I don't want a bunch of warm air going outside. Any ideas?



No I don't need one to evacuate exhaust from the trucks, I always run the trucks outside when running them. Just for the smoke from the welder.



Michael

 

[surfbeetle]

For Dust from body working or woodworking, I have seen guys take large pvc pipe, 3 or 4 inches in diameter and rig up a system that was attached to a shop vac to collect the dust. I see no reason why you couldn't place the vac outside of the garage and suck the fumes out that way. You still need to be careful to get adequate fresh air ventalation. I would not want to seal myself into a building with no point of fresh air from the outside while welding. Some of that stuff can make you sick.

 

[Nate]

What I did is take a box fan and tape a furnance filter on the back of it. Works pretty good. If the smoke/fumes get real bad, just crack the garage door an inch or two and it will help clear it up. Makes the floor cold though.



Edit... this was with a MIG welder. If your using stick... I don't know if a box fan would be enough to clear up all those fumes.

 

[nickleinonen]

For Dust from body working or woodworking, I have seen guys take large pvc pipe, 3 or 4 inches in diameter and rig up a system that was attached to a shop vac to collect the dust. I see no reason why you couldn't place the vac outside of the garage and suck the fumes out that way. You still need to be careful to get adequate fresh air ventalation. I would not want to seal myself into a building with no point of fresh air from the outside while welding. Some of that stuff can make you sick.

just a warning with pvc piping. . stuff going through it can cause a static charge. . with woodworking dust, that static can cause a fire...



at work, we use [supposed to anyways] smoke eaters/fume extractors at work when welding. .



something like this http://www.sentryair.com/specs/Welding-Fume-Extractor-Arm-300-PWFE.htm?referrer=welding



don't know what they cost though???

 

[surfbeetle]

nick,

that's an excellent point, I never even considered the possibility of static charge.