Hobby weld shop in basement?

[Henro]

HI,

I'm just getting into the welding thing. Taking a class at the local community college. I like it!!! Why it took me so long to do something I wanted to do for years is beyond me!

Anyway, I expect my first welder will be a tig/stick unit. It will be a good one, but still don't know which one. It may take another month before I decide.

On to the question! Does a weld shop in the basement make sense? I mean in my home. I have a wood shop and the basement is actually above ground on "My side." I have to share a little and my better half gets half the dark side for the washer, drier and laundry tubs...:) Yes I did say half of the dark side...fair is fari, right?

So what do you guys do? Anyone have a basement weld shop? Do you use some kind of fan to suck out smoke/fumes/whatever and replace with outside air? How about fire proofing? I have a concrete floor but since the basement is above ground the walls on my side are wood. I could cover them with something I suppose...

Any pictures you can share or advice you can offer?

I'm all ears!

[Scott V]

Drywall,on the walls will be fine.Just watch out doing stick welding down there.Alway keep every thing picked up,and wait for everything to cool down.Safety equiptment is something else to have,like a bucket of water.

Just use your head,and you will be fine.

Get a fan in a window,and leave something else cracked open a little.

[Rocky D]

More than the smoke, dust will be your biggest concern. Dust from the laundry, or wood shop will smolder for hours before it flames up. Wood walls are only a danger if you're blowing sparks from a cutting torch. A fume exhauster would be good, too. Don't forget a good fire extinguisher....Halon is the best.

[rangerod]

Henro

The basement should not be a problem if you take all the required safety & enviromental controls into consideration. Some of the processes you will be performing will create alot of sparks like Rocky D stated so fire safety will be a factor. Other factors will be protecting your respitory system. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation in the room you are working in. You must take into consideration smoke, metallic dust from grinding. If you are going to be using the TIG process don't forget that Argon will cause asphyxiation if used in a closed enviroment like a basement & there is not sufficient ventilation. Just make sure you take all these factors into consideration & take the proper precautions to stay safe & alive.

[Old Man Stick]

Originally posted by rangerod
Henro

The basement should not be a problem if you take all the required safety & enviromental controls into consideration. Some of the processes you will be performing will create alot of sparks like Rocky D stated so fire safety will be a factor. Other factors will be protecting your respitory system. Make sure you have plenty of vetilation in the room you are working in. You must take into consideration smoke, metallic dust from grinding.

I fully Areee here. I work out in a Poll barn. Does not matter what time of the year it is. I normaly have the doors closed. Its cold outside Or all the buggs and stuff like it better inside then out. I have a Box fan in the hatch to go uptop. Then put a screen Door on the man door. If Im working I have the door open and the fan blowing the bad air out the roof Vents. I have the fan far away from the welding table. That way I dont have to worry about drawing sparks or what ever uptop. I have Wooden walls in here. I work in a steel coil plant so I just brought home scrap sheets and hung them on the walls behind the table to keep those worries down.

Hope it helps.

OMS

[Henro]

Hi again,

I guess I was more thinking of keeping smells/odors from invading the living space upstairs where the mistress spends her time...:o

Only fair to call her the mistress...since I refer to myself as her slave...[not true, but doing so has its advantates :D ]

Good point about argon/co2 displacing O2...

Also was mainly thinking about winter and minimizing the exhaust of heated air from my workshop, but think that could be handled by putting up a curtain and having both the exhaust and make up air inlet on the work side of the curtain.

Probably better to do the welding stuff outside, in a shed or something like that...but it gets SO COLD here in the winter months and I want to ENJOY welding...

Great input from everyone. Thanks for being such help. Really appreciate it!

[Roger]

Keep sparks away from glass windows prevents rusty metal particals imbeded in glass.