Fabricating a welding booth

[jmarkwolf]

I'm "tooling up" up to "re-learn" welding, while trying not to spend a fortune because I may not "take" to this new hobby.

I bought a little used Lincoln AC/DC 225 which I know is going to generate a lot of sparks.

I'm surprised there are plenty of examples of welding table fabrication on this forum, but not much discussion about constructing welding booths.

Originally I was just going to drape some welding blankets to protect the new T1-11 on the interior walls of my new garage shop. Then I read about someone burning down their shop because an errant welding spark flew up into a canoe lashed to the 8ft ceiling, and I thought I'd better build some kind of booth to fully contain such sparks.

Then the question became should I just build a shower curtain kind of structure with some sort of roof, or fabricate a more solid structure.

Then I thought if I was going to the trouble, I may as well do some fume evacuation as well, which I hadn't considered originally.

I'm now thinking I'll build a 4-sided box structure ( 3 sides and a top), 4ft on a side, that will be either suspended, or stand on legs over my welding table (which is 2ft x 3ft without the extensions), with some welding blanket "skirts" that will go to the floor. I'll stand at the open side of the box, which will be toward the interior of the room.

Box construction may be folded sheet metal (should galvanized sheet stock be avoided here?), or possibly the corrugated roofing panels from Home Depot, although the corrugation makes for a lot of little "spark escape holes". Frame might be aluminum angle or Unistrut.

For fume evacuation, I'm thinking an inexpensive little portable axial "ventilator" blower and a hose running across the floor through a spacer panel under my main garage door. Don't want to install a permanent system yet, so I'll hook it up only when welding and stow the blower and hose the rest of the time, etc.

Anything else I should consider or disregard?

Any slick ideas for panels on the booth structure?

 

[metalhead212121]

wasn't there somebody on here that used a broken washer or dryer for a welding booth? (They gutted it)

^^^ just a thought..

 

[e30bradley]

I think you are way to concerned.. Just pickup the rags off the floor and weld away from flammable stuff.. I've been welding, cutting, and grinding in my ~20x20 garage for years. The worst I've done is light some rags on fire.

 

[airrj]

I have to say that I have worked allot without much shielding around my welding, O/A cutting, plasma cutting and grinding without incident. Three suggestions if you don't make a full shield.

1. Be able to extinguish a fire if you have one. And ABC extinguisher is always needed in a shop, but also the best thing you can have is a pressurized water extinguisher because you can use it and as long as you have an air compressor, you can reservice it yourself for free. So you won't be hesitant to use it and it won't make a mess.

2. Always stay in your shop 30 minutes after you stop welding or grinding. Keeping watch for that amount of time will allow you to spot any smoldering fires, and it is the standard length of time required by the International Fire Code for commercial operations.

3. Have portable shield to at least cover one direction. 90% of the time the most sparks that I make are from grinding and they are going in one direction. So with a single portable shield I can protect most things from the spark spray.

I am still a fairly novice welder, but a 28 year firefighter and fire inspector and this is what I do in my shop. Good luck and show us what you decide to do in the end.

 

[Johnny chaos]

My personal rule is to stay in the shop at least an hour after cutting or welding.....I usually clean up or have several more beers during that time

 

[mike13u]

Welding booths are used in schools to protect other's eyes from arc flash and to give the student an area of privacy and place without the distraction of the student welding next to them.
In fab shops, often times welding screens are hung around a weld area to protect the other's eyes in the shop from the arc.
These are the only two types of common 'booths' I have really ever seen used.
As is the case with any tool, be aware of your surrounding and proper use of your equipment. Welding is no more a hazard than using any other tool in your shop. Remember, to get into welding is to get into grinding. Will you be grinding in that nice weld booth? If not, will you build a booth to shield those sparks? How will you cut your material? Most start out with an abrasive chop saw. Again, a lot of sparks.
I think you are over thinking and worrying too much about this. Absolutely no need for a booth or a fume extractor for a beginning welder. Spent your time and money on good equipment and learning materials, relax, and enjoy your new hobby. It is a wonderful craft to learn and, should you decide to continue to advance and learn, will always provide a rewarding challenge. Best of luck.

 

[Thumper68]

Welding booths are used in schools to protect other's eyes from arc flash and to give the student an area of privacy and place without the distraction of the student welding next to them.
In fab shops, often times welding screens are hung around a weld area to protect the other's eyes in the shop from the arc.
These are the only two types of common 'booths' I have really ever seen used.
As is the case with any tool, be aware of your surrounding and proper use of your equipment. Welding is no more a hazard than using any other tool in your shop. Remember, to get into welding is to get into grinding. Will you be grinding in that nice weld booth? If not, will you build a booth to shield those sparks? How will you cut your material? Most start out with an abrasive chop saw. Again, a lot of sparks.
I think you are over thinking and worrying too much about this. Absolutely no need for a booth or a fume extractor for a beginning welder. Spent your time and money on good equipment and learning materials, relax, and enjoy your new hobby. It is a wonderful craft to learn and, should you decide to continue to advance and learn, will always provide a rewarding challenge. Best of luck.

This^^^

 

[astroracer]

Ditto on this. No need for any booth or extractor in a home shop. All they do is limit accessibility and flexibilty. I roll my welders all over the shop when I am building a frame or welding panels into a car body.
The only thing I ever set on fire was me!
Mark

 

[BD1]

I agree on no booth too . Using welding blankets to cover and protect the area is fine. With stick welding you could use a box fan for the smoke and blow it away from you. Mig would be different if gas is used.
I keep a garden hose connected along with a 5 gallon bucket of water. This can be used for quenching and for emergency use. If you have a floor drain I would cover it and keep fire extinguishers nearby. As stated check area again about a hour after welding .

 

[APEowner]

My personal rule is to stay in the shop at least an hour after cutting or welding.

This is mine as well. I did this for years and years and eventually I got lazy and modified it to "wander out to the shop some undefined time after I'm done".

One day I wandered out to the shop a couple of hours after I had been cutting with the plasma cutter and found a small fire smouldering behind an engine block on the opposite side of the 1000 square ft shop from where I had been working. Apparently some slag had ended up there and had melted through the plastic bag covering the block and ignited the oil that was coating the machined surfaces. Fortunately the walls were 5/8" fire code drywall so the fire didn't go anywhere. I had several fire extinguishers handy but was able to put the fire out using the squirt bottle filled with water that I keep near the welders for the express purpose of putting out tiny fires before they become big ones.

I like the idea of a contained welding area and if I had the time and real estate I'd be tempted to build one.

 

[bimmer1980]

They do make some good recommendations above.....

However.....

I have thought it would be handy to have a spark shield or "weld curtain" to go around my welding table. Especially when grinding, it would be helpful to contain the sparks.....

The problem with closing in the welding table is that then you limit yourself to future projects.

Here's a couple of ideas that I have thought about, but have not implemented....

Attach a vertical sleeve on each corner of the welding table. Then have pipes or rods that drop into these that give the height of the sides. You could then have a horizontal U-shape that goes around the top. Then the welding curtain attaches to this structure. I think you can buy a heavy mill PVC shielding welding curtain. This would work as shielding to others eyes, but still allow for some light into the booth. Google options--check out how scaffolding pins together......think mini scaffold frames on the sides of your booth.....

When you do get to building something larger, then you can easily removed some or all of the curtain to get larger items into the booth. In some instances, you might be able to lift up just part of the curtain and stick a long piece in to get welded.

Another option--make panels with cheap framing materials (steel studs or conduit) and screw the corrugated steel panels to that. Make receiving sleeves on the welding table for the panels to slip into. This would be similar to how sides are quickly attached to a utility trailer.

A completely different option.... Just buy the corrugated steel panel the height of your wall. Then simply allocate a corner in your garage and attach them to the wall. For the other two walls, make a simple frame and hang a welding curtain on it. These would be easily movable and your could expand your area as needed for various projects. Your welding table would sit in the center of this area and you could weld and grind all you want. When finished, move the welding curtain frames and sweep up the floor.

The other thing to be aware of is that you will need some good light. I find that if it is too dark, it is hard to see the surrounding metal and the weld puddle. With poor light, all you can see is the bright weld puddle and you can't see the joint or where you want to direct the weld puddle.

So, if you end up with a booth, that will be on the dark side if you don't have a light in the booth.....

Just curious how you plan to start practicing your welding?

Best of all, enjoy the welding!!

 

[sberry]

Stick welding makes a lot of smoke fast. I really try to use wire in the winter but have a booth, mainly for a little training in bad weather.
I keep picked up, cant or wont wait an hour after every weld or cut. Do most plasma cutting over a can.

 

[jmarkwolf]

Thanks for the excellent input everybody.

I think what I'll do for now is drape welding blankets over a scaffold with the platform adjusted all the way to the top forming the "roof", with my welding table underneath.

The scaffold is bigger than the box I originally considered so I'll have more room to start with. And can roll it away if it gets in the way.

The metal frame of the scaffold can support a panel for affixing some sort fume extraction blower/hose.

Once I figure out if I want to pursue this hobby I can rethink my setup, in which case I'll undoubtedly turn to this forum for inspiration.

 

[gahrajmahal]

A welding respirator is always a good idea too.

 

[brownbagg]

little used Lincoln AC/DC 225

good machine,

you could always frame it and then put concrete board on the frame

 

[jmarkwolf]

Update:

I bought a HF "heavy duty" scaffold for $159. Then bought some of their fiberglass welding blankets and will drape them around the perimeter as shown below. Still have to do something with the underside of the platform as it is plywood. Fire proof paint if nothing else.

I first priced out what it would cost to buy the pieces to build a similar structure with Unistrut. By the time I bought the sticks and corner fittings and casters and fasteners it would have been the same or more.

As it is, the scaffold will come in handy for a great many things afterwards, roll around work platform, adjustable shelving unit, scaffold, welding booth.

Kinda like Lego!

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=418303&stc=1&d=1424642066

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=418304&stc=1&d=1424642066

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Shields aren't just for protecting the eyes of anyone else near by, but are a darn good idea if you are in an area with others near by.

They also serve to help control breezes. I weld with an open garage door for plenty of light and ventilation, but sometimes that breeze will pick up and there goes my nice shielding gas at the weld joint so I have to wait or move to block it.

Frankly, I'm too lazy to build or use a shield. What I have works for my needs. Anything more would become more of a hindrance than a help.

What I could really use are more welding blankets and not huge ones. I should really cut some bigger ones down to about 4x4 or so. A big blanket is nice, but it's also a PITA to fold up and store.