Welding in winter

[couch67]

This is one of those 'make up my mind' threads.

Planning to fab up a mobile table for the shop this weekend, 1 1/2" tube frame. Heat is on in the shop now but given it will be mostly sunny and hovering around freezing, I'll likely turn off the heat and open the garage door up for the day to cut and weld.

This got me thinking to what do others do when welding in the winter? Open windows and a box fan? Just weld outside? Wait til spring? Or just move south?

 

[dffay]

I MIG and Stick process outside or well ventilated with a propane heater if necessary. Mild steel done like that in non-critical applications is fine. I would not do cast iron or certain TIG projects in that condition or it would shock the metal unnecessarily. As to me, just layer up and gut it out. That’s why God invented Irish Coffee afterwards.

 

[CraigStu]

I do hobby grade Tig all year. Never even thought about garage temp other than how it affects me. SHould I?

 

[TractorJeff]

I Stick weld and Torch cut outside, Mig weld just inside the door with heat off. As the Fab projects are generally lower in the winter, I am not going to do a fire safe ventilated work area. Hot Slag is tough on Concrete also.

 

[TractorJeff]

I do hobby grade Tig all year. Never even thought about garage temp other than how it affects me. SHould I?

No, other than stay mindful of the Fumes that maybe given off.

 

[Bert_]

Another good reason to have an overhead infared heater. You can run an exhaust fan and still be comfortable.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Some times I will open the door to get fresh air in but not with a small amount. The wood burner helps pull stuff out of the air.

 

[Justind97]

Depending on the metal and how cold it is, preheat it with a torch first before making any passes is what I typically do. I actually end up with a nice weld bead doing this with my mig.

 

[joe_padavano]

I would not do cast iron or certain TIG projects in that condition or it would shock the metal unnecessarily.

Shock the metal? That 1723 deg Kelvin line in the illustration is about 2641 deg F. Do you really think it matters if the metal is at 70 deg F or 30 deg F?

 

[nadogail]

I weld only mild steel with stick. Because of the moderate climate my main weather concern is rain, and we don't see much of that.

 

[lowrollin70gmc]

I have a work table I set outside and do cutting and grinding outside when possible. Most welding is inside my garage year round, as that’s where the project vehicles are.

I’ll try and plan my welding so that I can air out the shop when needed. Mostly this means do the welding, open the door to air it out, close door and go in house for lunch while the garage warms back up. Recovery doesn’t take too long, as the objects in the garage are warm already.

 

[XJSuperman]

I do it all in the garage. heat on, doors closed. After every couple welds I stop and open up and ventilate the place. It forces me to slow down on what Im doing, which lets me refocus before I weld something out of order, and of course clears the air. If I have something simple thats moving pretty quickly, I set up a fan in a window and crack a door to **** clean air through. Heat stays on.

 

[justanengineer]

This is one reason I like TIG - very low heat input and almost no sparks/slag so mess, fumes, and heat distortion are minimized. Most of the time I just giv’er, but do have a respirator for dirty work and a smoke eater stored at a buddy’s if necessary.


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[rlitman]

Shock the metal? That 1723 deg Kelvin line in the illustration is about 2641 deg F. Do you really think it matters if the metal is at 70 deg F or 30 deg F?...

Yes, it can matter. Pre-heat is often called for in certain alloys, especially in winter conditions. The puddle won't care, but the HAZ certainly can.

 

[Ron_J]

I do it all in the garage. heat on, doors closed. After every couple welds I stop and open up and ventilate the place. It forces me to slow down on what Im doing, which lets me refocus before I weld something out of order, and of course clears the air. If I have something simple thats moving pretty quickly, I set up a fan in a window and crack a door to **** clean air through. Heat stays on.

^^^What he said.

 

[Iron Beaver]

I weld outdoors year-round. Mostly stick and a little MIG for tacking stuff in place. I love TIG but I have to wait for calm weather to do it, which doesn't happen very often around here

 

[crewchief888]

i usually have the overhead door open anyway, no matter what the outside temp is.

cold weather just means i put a sweatshirt on under my FRC jacket.

if it's snowing and blowing i'm probably not going to be home anyway. i'm on call 24/7 during the winter months

 

[Renegade1LI]

Usually weld outside behind the garage, thinking of a 10 x 15 portable shelter, would be nice for all the dirty work. Hang some welding blankets where needed to weld & grind, easy to ventilate & can even heat with a small diesel torpedo heater.

 

[Showkey]

Open the man door slightly, turn on the vent fan on the other side of the shop. Cross flow ventilation while welding. Nat Gas is so cheap running the fan and fresh cold air is not noticeable.

I am very careful of debris and sparks from welding and grinding .........neighbor lost his shop to welding sparks and debris, his case was saw dust and welding sparks smoldering.

 

[TractorJeff]

Open the man door slightly, turn on the vent fan on the other side of the shop. Cross flow ventilation while welding. Nat Gas is so cheap running the fan and fresh cold air is not noticeable.

I am very careful of debris and sparks from welding and grinding .........neighbor lost his shop to welding sparks and debris, his case was saw dust and welding sparks smoldering.

Fire is the only thing I am paranoid about!

 

[Macneil]

I do it all in the garage. heat on, doors closed. After every couple welds I stop and open up and ventilate the place. It forces me to slow down on what Im doing, which lets me refocus before I weld something out of order, and of course clears the air. If I have something simple thats moving pretty quickly, I set up a fan in a window and crack a door to **** clean air through. Heat stays on.

I do the same thing at home in my attached 2 car. When I flip up my lid and I can see too much smoke, I’ll open the door and let it air out. I have a couple of USB fans we’d bought for camping a couple years ago that helps circulate the heat and helps push out the fumes. When I can clearly see again, I’ll close the door but stop it with a small crack and fire up the diesel heater for recovery. Once it kicks off, I’ll turn my 240V heat back on and rinse and repeat..

This has got me thinking though...moving south would be nice some days lol. (Canada...BRRR).

Does anyone run an extraction style fan at home? We have some at work and they work great but I am not sure how well I could set one up at home.


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[dffay]

It’s about the shock in the cool down primarily. It’s an issue so important, that it’s dealt with heavily in the Navy and aerospace metallurgy/weldor testing. It’s seen in more working class pursuits like homespun knife making of heating a blade to red hot then improper quenching.

 

[Charlie51]

This ^^^^^ Some early Mooney aircraft lost their tails because of it.

 

[CraigStu]

This is one reason I like TIG - very low heat input and almost no sparks/slag so mess, fumes, and heat distortion are minimized.
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Me too. Over the years I have welded all around my cars including in the interior. I have an old AC stick welder too but haven't used it in maybe 5 years. Recently I have been welding up some of the steel plates we shoot at at Izaak Walton. Honestly the stick would really be the way to go but I Tig them anyway. To use the stick I'd either need to be outside or our cars would have to be outside so I could move my little welding table to the middle if the garage.

 

[gearhead1]

I’ll weld until it gets Smokey then open the door to get the smoke out.

I put in 2 dryer vents when I built the workshop. That way I can attach a hose and in-line fan to **** out over a welding table. I put another one between the roll up doors to either attach to a vehicle exhaust or just a hose to near where I’m welding.

I was going to getaway Miller respirator, now they’re too expensive from the plandemic.

 

[matt_i]

I do tig mostly but will make exceptions and just deal with the smoke if it has to be stick. I open the attic access, about a 4' square opening and open a door and it all heads out pretty quickly. Then close the attic and the temp will recover reasonably well. If I can do it outdoors, though, I will.

 

[p00p]

i weld in any temps that I can tolerate. The main factor that is considered and addressed is air stability. If the draft is heavy or direct to where I am welding, I will do what I can to mitigate the disturbance. I like a pre-during-post flow of gas over anything I am fusing together.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I crack the door and run the exhaust fan.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Biggest problem I have welding in cold weather is the hood fogging up. I try holding my breath or blowing down but usually keep a heat gun nearby to clear it up every pass or two. Other than that no problems but my heavy fab area is in a well ventilated lean to off the main shop. Small weld jobs inside don't make enough smoke to matter.

 

[The Cobbler]

...moving south would be nice some days lol. (Canada...BRRR).

Sudbury, BRRRR , Niagara, not so bad ! LOL

 

[ItsNemo]

Double car attached with natural gas unit heater...I've got a 110cfm exhaust fan that I run when welding and if I'm doing a lot will crack the door open a few inches. Is enough to keep most of the fumes out.

 

[PugetDude]

I'm in the far east PHX valley; we have 325+ VFR days/year. Same conditions for welding outside..Temperatures are seldom an issue, but it does get a bit windy for MIG sometimes, so I have to move just inside the double garage door out of the wind.

 

[86turbodsl]

Don't forget to preheat in a cold shop if you are doing anything critical. I've noticed significant differences in weld quality depending on temps and how much heat i've already put into the weldment.

 

[c39er]

Always weld outside except for Tig.
Cars with gas tanks in the shop. A risk for sure.
Have read of too many welding shop fires.