Nice work sieg, make sure you ventilate where you weld. Some of the gasses and fumes that come off those colored and aged metals can hurt you.
Maybe a neutral air system should be next on your project list.

How many hours a day are you welding now?

Vince,

About an hour of actual weld time max.......preps another story as you well know.

The way my bench is set up the TIG unit sits at the same height as the welding table and the fan exhausts forward right across the work area. There's also a heater at ceiling height 4' away the blows over the top of the space. The garage is 780 s.f. so it takes a while to fume it.

Progress and completion shots.......it's for my Mother Inlaw who's a country girl thus the horseshoe theme.

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-W...Wz7nWS2-XL.jpg

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-H...H6r9vLF-XL.jpg

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-k...kVxS6hv-XL.jpg

Every project I learn a new technique, trick, how to make a mistake, and fix it or pay the price of fabing a replacement piece. :thumbsup:

Don't use a fan to ventilate your welding area ---- it blows the shielding gas off the weld. Remember there's not all that much flowing there.

Typical welding "ventilating" is done with "extractors" that are overhead of the weld... so that the gas has shielded the weld puddle and then leaves the area.


WE -- meaning us just doing stuff around home - don't breathe enough bad stuff to be an issue. Having said that - there ARE fumes from stuff we could/do weld that are harmful in very small doses. Stuff such as galvanized material (we don't tend to use this in our projects) - and CHLORINATED anything!

Manganese fumes are very harmful --- it's a known fact that in a study of 20,000 welders - 10% (professional welders) developed PARKINSON'S... and the suspected agent is the Manganese that is found in all steels and steel welding rod (filler) etc.

Now -- this is people welding 8 hours a day - 5 days a week - for 20 years... So WE are not really going to be affected by that... but it's still (fumes of any kind) something we should be considering regardless as far as I'm concerned.

Considering that I already have a MIG welder at home and wanting to learn TIG to take my hobby/craft to the next level I'm jumping all in and I signed-up for classes starting next month! I went with a full welding course that covers MIG, TIG, metal theory, and full fabrication. I'm getting excited!

Best plan EVER. Most local colleges offer some type of classes on this - night classes etc. I took these back in the 70's even when I was still in high school - at night out at Mount Hood Community College.


There's MUCH to know about "welding" -- and some basic knowledge about the metals you're working with is something that will be helpful in many ways. Most guys don't understand what annealing is and how that affects what they're going to do with the piece at hand. So good for you!

BTW --- Just to be sure on the whole 'fume' issue.... STICK WELDING is far more harmful in general because of the flux used etc ---- than is our little bit of TIG welding. You watch a guy stick welding and there's just all manor of smoke and stuff surrounding the guy.

FWIW - The little fan typically blows across the front of the table between my chest and the torch head, the only gas flow issue I've noticed is with my dog.

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-s...-s6JNcgj-L.jpg

If I buy an extractor it will look something like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...rings/BCM3.jpg

A real man would have welded that overhead - up side down - and backwards.

Good for you! :thumbsup:

I've been taking Tungsten Grinding 101...........finally had to clearance the tungsten collet in the torch as it was worn from removing and reinserting so many times it wouldn't clamp..........that's real-world hands-on edumakation right there!