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Work space ventilation

TBoone

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Carnation, WA
Looking for any advice I can get to aid in purchasing/installing a ventilation fan in my 22x22 garage I use as a fabrication shop. I am primarily looking to vent out abrasive wheel dust, welding fumes and sometimes painting fumes. I have no primary work location within the space so I assume a near center location would work best. As for CFM I am completely unsure of. I would think there would be a formula with consideration of the balance between evacuating fumes vs evacuating the expensive heat.

Thanks in advance for any info/advice!
 
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rockchucker

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Mar 27, 2010
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Seattle WA
Bigger is better. Always. A Variable Speed Fan is a good choice also. You don't always want 100% air movement.

A Manifold design is a must if you want to evacuate air from all areas of the shop instead of just one area.

Choose your fan size. Run a large rigid metal Duct down the center directly off of the fan. Tap in runners off of the main Duct for as many locations as you want.

Say run a 12" Fan with a 12" Duct down the Center straight off of the fan for the best flow characteristics. Then tap in 4 (one for each quadrant) or 6 or 8 or however many you deem necessary 6" Ducts. Try to limit the number of bends and 90° bends in the Ducting.
 

Jack Olsen

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Mar 22, 2009
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Los Angeles
I have a flat roof, so I put in a whole-house attic-type fan. It was cheap and moves a lot of air.

fanabovelr.jpg


The one I use was less than $80 when I got it, but now has bumped up to $122. Still, it's 1200 CFM.

http://www.drillspot.com/products/47460/Broan_355_Power_Attic_Ventilator
 

bad_idea

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Jun 11, 2011
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Pasquotank, NC
Do you have problems with rust stains on the roof Jack? I have thought of a large fan sucking the air outside, but am worried it would blow the grinding dust onto the roof.
 

Jack Olsen

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No stains that I'm aware of. But I'd have to go up there to find out. Only the birds are able to see it.
 

bad_idea

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Jun 11, 2011
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Pasquotank, NC
Having a flat roof has it's benefits. My sloped roof is visible from the front yard and therefore I have to plan accordingly. The wife had a fit when I got the roll up door dirty.... She doesn't care what I do in the garage, doesn't care too much about cost, it just can't affect the prettiness of the rest of the house.
 
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TBoone

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Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Carnation, WA
I found this site which lists general calculations:
http://www.industrialfansdirect.com/CFM.html

And looks like 500 up to 1300 CFM is what I should be looking at so I also found this variable speed fan:
http://www.industrialfansdirect.com/IND-FA-EF-GP/LFI-XF12.html

Price is decent and fan is simply mounted in the wall but I am hesitant that the lack of focused ductwork will make it not effective. Should I obsess about that or hit the easy button and install this fan as it is better than nothing? I like the variable speed so I can keep a steady airflow for standard use and not pull out all my heat and then bump it up for welding or painting. I would be mounting it in the back wall of my garage which is the only practical exhaust location.
 
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BWS

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Mnts of Va
Just remember the "makeup" air.If you're blowin or suckin air out of a room where is the fresh stuff coming from?BW
 

79firebird

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Joined
Aug 19, 2008
Messages
385
Location
Victoria bc
in my shop as well as most of my buddys we all use Furnace fans. very quiet and work good. When im paining i just stick a paint booth filer on each side works awsome. Mine was free. free Furnace's come up all the time grab the fan from it then scrap it for a fue bones
 

gahrajmahal

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Dec 12, 2008
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2,527
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
My wife and I just were at the local art museum last week. The gallery tour was cancelled, so they asked if we would be interested in seeing the restoration shop. I was admiring their system of roof exhaust vents. They looked like a round steel pipe welded to a square flange. This was bolted through the roof, which I'm sure had a nice flange and hat like Jack Olsens attic vent. Attached to the pipe was a 6" flex hose. This was held up by two long spring articulated arms, like a giant desk lamp mounted to the ceiling. Down where the lamp end would be there was a fan to **** out the toxic fumes from the various chemicals used to clean the paintings, or on another bench where they were disassembling a Tiffany stained glass panel which would create fumes from the solder. I wish I had a camera with me so I could assist my explanation. They reminded me of the industrial welding fume extractors but were definitely custom made. They had about 6 of them hanging down in their 100 x 100 ft space.
 

Andy Griffith

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Sep 2, 2009
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Western WA
I found this site which lists general calculations:
http://www.industrialfansdirect.com/CFM.html

And looks like 500 up to 1300 CFM is what I should be looking at so I also found this variable speed fan:
http://www.industrialfansdirect.com/IND-FA-EF-GP/LFI-XF12.html

Price is decent and fan is simply mounted in the wall but I am hesitant that the lack of focused ductwork will make it not effective. Should I obsess about that or hit the easy button and install this fan as it is better than nothing? I like the variable speed so I can keep a steady airflow for standard use and not pull out all my heat and then bump it up for welding or painting. I would be mounting it in the back wall of my garage which is the only practical exhaust location.
Kind of depends on the size of your shop and what, if any, other activities you do in the space, or items that you store in the space.

For my home shop I have found that attempting to use a single large fan to evacuate air from the entire shop building was not so useful. But then I do multiple disciplines in my shop. I've found that a single fan for the whole building evacuates the smoke, fumes, grinding dust etc, but also all of the heated air. Further, said fan drags the abrasive dust, paint fumes/particles etc across all areas (tools, benches, other items) of the shop in the process.

In short, for my situation, I wish that I had put in duct work and used a system of spot pick-up hoods at the point of process. As in an adjustable pick-up hood over the weld table, and one over the large open bay for large weldments, etc.

If you are truly only doing fab work in that space, and not concerned with having a layer of abrasive dust and paint particles on just about everything, then a single large fan would probably be fine.

Edited to add: also I've found when doing a large weldment (like the hay feeder I fabricated) the whole shop fan was not as effective at evacuating the smoke as I'd hoped it would be. But in this case I had tacked the whole thing together and then it was a marathon welding session.
 
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TBoone

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Carnation, WA
in my shop as well as most of my buddys we all use Furnace fans. very quiet and work good. When im paining i just stick a paint booth filer on each side works awsome. Mine was free. free Furnace's come up all the time grab the fan from it then scrap it for a fue bones

Good idea! I will have to do some CL searching.
 
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T

TBoone

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Carnation, WA
Kind of depends on the size of your shop and what, if any, other activities you do in the space, or items that you store in the space.

For my home shop I have found that attempting to use a single large fan to evacuate air from the entire shop building was not so useful. But then I do multiple disciplines in my shop. I've found that a single fan for the whole building evacuates the smoke, fumes, grinding dust etc, but also all of the heated air. Further, said fan drags the abrasive dust, paint fumes/particles etc across all areas (tools, benches, other items) of the shop in the process.

In short, for my situation, I wish that I had put in duct work and used a system of spot pick-up hoods at the point of process. As in an adjustable pick-up hood over the weld table, and one over the large open bay for large weldments, etc.

If you are truly only doing fab work in that space, and not concerned with having a layer of abrasive dust and paint particles on just about everything, then a single large fan would probably be fine.

Edited to add: also I've found when doing a large weldment (like the hay feeder I fabricated) the whole shop fan was not as effective at evacuating the smoke as I'd hoped it would be. But in this case I had tacked the whole thing together and then it was a marathon welding session.

Thanks! That's what I was afraid of, looks like some ductwork is in order... I would like to reduce the layer of **** on everything to make an attempt of keeping things clean.
 
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