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r/metalworking•
maintain

advice on setting up a home metals studio

i'm interested in small-scale welding & metals fabrication studio. the space i have available is in the basement of a 1905-era house. i have a reasonable amount of tools (small arbor press & roll press, as well as numerous hand tools), still need torches & also to figure out what kind of fuel system i want to be using. my experience in undergrad was with air/acetylene torches, so i'm most comfortable with that, but open to trying new things.

especially interested in safety - i'm worried about ventilation & breathing in metal dust.

does anyone have a home studio? do you use an air filtration system & if so what kind? any recommendations on torch systems? i will be working in copper, bronze, silver, gold, etc.

advice on any part of the studio set up process is much appreciated! thanks!

Posted Nov 6, 2011, 11:38 PM UTC

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93sr20det•

Check out garagejournal.com for ideas. Alot of people have to do the basement thing due to cost or space restraints.

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maintainOP•

thank you! i will definitely check that out - and yes, i am restrained right now by both cost and space :)

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danimal87•

I purchased a dryer exhaust kit form a big box store and fitted a small fan to pull fumes out of the area when welding at home. I do a lot of basement tig welding but I prefer not to run the oxy/acet torch in my basement due to fire hazard.

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maintainOP•

i am not familiar with tig welding, but briefly looking it up made it seem like there is less (no?) open flame during the process (is that right?)

also - you said you don't run the oxy/acetylene torch in your basement, do you have one and use it at home - but perhaps outdoors?

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danimal87•

In tig welding you basically get a small very contained electric arc. no smoke, no sparks, you could do it in dress suit. I do have an oxy/acet torch but as you guessed I only use it out side. recently though I have switched to using propane as my fuel gas due to the increase in cost of acetylene.

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Moarbrains•

TIG is clean, but its off-gases are still toxic. I hope your ventilation works well.

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GreenStrong•

For silver and gold, air acetylene is what jewelers use. Any jeweler you visit will have one, fire code in my area bans indoor propane tanks larger than a handheld blowtorch and requires an additional permit for non- medical oxygen. (oxygen concentrators attached to torches are probably kosher)

My wife is a jeweler, the torch is by a window with an exhaust fan. Other than that, the only air filter is a dust collection aparatus on the buffer.

Keep in mind that what you're doing may be completely beyond the scope of residential fire code, and that a 1905 house is quite flammable. I wouldn't lose much sleep over an acetelyne tank without proper outdoor signage in a new house, but if there is old wiring, it could really be a problem.

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hlabarka•

I would have imagined jewelers would use MAPP gas or something instead of acetylene?

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maintainOP•

in my (limited) experience, most of the jewelers in my undergrad studio used air/acetylene - but some used oxy/acetylene instead.

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maintainOP•

this is really helpful, thank you.

dumb clarification question - you said that indoor propane tanks are banned, & that you need a permit for non-medical oxygen, but...does that mean i might be able to have an air/acetylene torch with no permit? and/or...is air/acetylene somehow safer?

again, i apologize if these are ridiculous questions, but having only ever used the studios that were already set up for me at school, i feel a bit lost in planning my own - at least, the dangerous parts.

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GreenStrong•

It will depend on your local codes, of course, but where I am, you can have acetylene with a permit, but you can never have a propane tank indoors. The jewelers in the mall all use acetylene in my area, it isn't looked at as terribly dangerous. Acetylene is lighter than air, so it tends to rise and disperse, while propane pools on the ground, as it is dense. Apparently that makes propane more dangerous... I'm not sure why gas accumulating on the ceiling is better than the floor.

I'm probably not exactly in compliance by having a welding tank in a residential zoned area, if they allowed it at all they would probably require a hazardous materials placard to alert firefighters to the situation if there were a fire. If I were living in a house with old wiring, I would think twice about having a tank without a placard, and the placard would tell the world about your code violation. If the wiring is modern, the chances of a fire are fairly slim.

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[deleted]•

Apparently that makes propane more dangerous... I'm not sure why gas accumulating on the ceiling is better than the floor.

It's because when you're overcome by the gas, you fall to the floor into a heavier concentration of the gas and it's likely game-over.

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GreenStrong•

Good to know; thanks.

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dalidiamond•

I have a home studio and I crack the window and wear a special mask for solder fumes when I solder. I would never weld (except for Platinum) indoors. I used my garage for that. You can choose to purchase cadmium free solder which is supposed to be safer.

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