I am in the process of setting up a new soldering area and I
need a better ventilation system. Does anyone have any good
articles/ideas/suppliers or suggestions?
I am in the process of setting up a new soldering area and Ineed a better ventilation system. Does anyone have any good
articles/ideas/suppliers or suggestions?
At Susan Kingsley’s suggestion, I had a Plymovent installed in
my workshop. It works well. It has an articulated metal tube
that can be moved around to vent a specific area. Some of the
fittings are plastic, but it seems to hold up to venting a
soldering area.
Air Exchange
Rob Peschilli
1185 San Mateo Ave.
San Bruno, CA 94066
415 871-2945
800 300-2945
Fax 415 871-2948
Robin Casady
http://www.scruz.net/~rcasady/
Macintosh software for:
Managing URL Bookmarks
LX200 telescope control
Robin,
Thanks very much! Ill give them a call.
A pretty good source of such info is to go through wood working
magazines. Many of them have featured plans and suggestions for
ventilation systems for workshops. Typically, they are trying to
deal with saw and sanding dust, but simply scaling them down makes
them work well for a jeweler’s shop.
Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org
Thereis a very good book called “Ventilation for Craftspeople” (
I’ll have to check to see if that’s the exact title ). It’s out of
print but I was able to get it through an interlibrary loan. Kevin
Kelly
A pretty good source of such info is to go through wood working magazines. Many of them have featured plans and suggestions for ventilation systems for workshops. Typically, they are trying to deal with saw and sanding dust, but simply scaling them down makes them work well for a jeweler's shop.
Thanks for the input Ron. I think it would be a highly marketable
product line to have modular system s available that are designed to
our industry’s needs (not just for particulates but chemical, mist
and kiln fumes to name a few). A benchtop system should be easy to
clean out and as quiet as possible. Its a subject that comes up in
almost every class I teach. Many students dont know a thing about
exhausting harmful stuff out of the work area and think an open
window in the studio is adequate ventilation. Or they think i f they
work outside that will be sufficient (if you are standing over
something toxic outdoors you are probably breathing in harmful
fumes). Now that baby boomers are geezing, were starting to wake up
and be more concerned with our health- realizing we are not as
invincible as we once thought. Best Regards, Kate Wolf, Portland, Maine
hosting workshops by the bay. The sun is out, th e wild roses are
blooming- maybe its a good day to call in well! http://www.katewolfdesigns.com
A pretty good source of such info is to go through wood working magazines. Many of them have featured plans and suggestions for ventilation systems for workshops. Typically, they are trying to deal with saw and sanding dust, but simply scaling them down makes them work well for a jeweler's shop.
Ron, The problem with the woodworking ventilation systems is they
aren’t interested in trapping the small particles like you would get
from investment or the fumes from pickle and other chemicals used.
Ken Kotoski
MPG Repair
www.mpgrepair.com
1-877-262-2185
The problem with the woodworking ventilation systems is they aren't interested in trapping the small particles like you would get from investment or the fumes from pickle and other chemicals used.
Quite correct. You do have to use different filters and tighter
joints. I spent a few years working with heating/ac and so was able
to make the adjustments I needed. Basically, there are a lot of off
the shelf materials available at a well stocked HVAC supply house to
make a system to do the job. I am amazed that no one in that
industry has twigged to the need for such systems in the durable
arts industry.
Ron Charlotte -- Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org
The main reason there is no quick and easy on
ventilation is due to the complexity of the subject. When building a
new commercial casting facility we looked to HVAC (Heating,
Ventilation and Air Conditioning) professionals to help us with the
ventilation setup for casting, investing, waxing, and soldering. We
found that you really need to hire an expert designer to address the
problem because each space is so different.
The number one problem with most ventilation systems I have seen in
schools shops and studios is lack or supply or make up air . Every
cubic foot of exausted air must be ballenced with a fresh supplied
cubic foot of air from outside ( BTW make sure the supply suction is
not close to or down wind from the exhaust or you will recycle your
fumes). If you do not provide a return air supply the fans will just
go round and round and not move any air. So you make lots of noise
and spend lots of money installing a system that does nothing for
your health.
The standard hood type ventilation setup like a range hood is the
worst kind of ventilation setup. The reason for this is the opening
to the hood is huge so the velocity of the air at the opening to the
hood is very low so it is inefficient in capturing particles and
fumes. To get a reasonable capture velocity the fan system must be
huge(many times larger than the fan that is included in a range
hood) to move enough air this makes it loud, expensive and if you
live in a climate where you need air conditioning or heating for
comfort all your cooled or heated air is being exhausted right out
of the building so you need more heating or air conditioning
capacity to keep up with the losses all of which makes for an
inefficient and costly system. And from a health standpoint worst
yet it pulls the hazardous material right past your face as it is
pulled up from the source of the fumes into the hood.
Each work station needs to be designed to make sure the proper
volume of air in CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) and capture velocity of
air flow in SFM (Surface Feet per Minute) is collecting the
hazardous material and keeping it away from the worker. The best
systems get close to the source of the fume and capture it before it
ever gets close to your face. A good beginning for ventilation
is a book called “Artist Beware” by Michael C.I.H.
McCann Ph.D. ISBN: 1585742112 Get this book it has suggestions for
types of ventilation setups then work with a HVAC designer to get a
proper system. This is your health we are talking about here you
don’t want to say in ten years “gee I wish I had done something
about the investment dust before I got silicosis”
Jim
Hi All, I do a lot of hot glass work, in addition to working with
metals. I bought a new torch, a Major Burner, and it creates a lot of
Carbon Dioxide/Monoxide fumes. I created my own ventilation system
that really sucks the fumes out of my building. Grainger has a whole
line of squirrel cage blowers.
http://www.grainger.com Search for 2c946.
The are rated in CFM from 350 to 1210, shaded pole or split
capacitor motor, in the price range of $100 to $200. They are not
super quiet, but could be made to be so if placed at a distance from
the work space.
I used about 16 feet of washer/dryer hose, 8 inches in diameter. I
hooked one end on the round hole on cage of the blower. I used my
flexshaft with a cut-off wheel to cut an 8 inch hole in the bottom
of a metal galvanized mop bucket. I hooked the other end of dryer
hose to the mop bucket with a flange I found at home depot in the
washer/dryer department.
I cut a hole in the wall of my workshop to the outside, and mounted
the blower over the hole to exaust to the outside. I hang the mop
bucket over my torch and it exausts all the fumes to the outside. I
could move the mop bucket around to another area, or move what needs
exausting to be under the mopbucket. Total cost, about $200.
My glass shop is 8’x12’x24’, or 2400 cubic feet. My 800 CFU exaust
fan changes the air in the shop every 3 minutes. If anyone needs a
picture, please let me know and I’ll put one on the web for you.
Love and God Bless
-randy
Http://www.rocksmyth.com
Jim, Very good info. One thought I just had is that for a small
limited operation, such as a hobbyist; perhaps a good quality
commercial canister vacuum with connections for both the intake and
exhaust could be used to pick up air right at the source of the fumes
etc and exhaust out a convenient window using an extra hose. The
pickup could be moved from place to place and be kept quite close to
the source of the fumes. Keeping the pickup point close allows less
dilution and thus lowers the volume of air required to be exhausted.
The velocity of the air could be adjusted by means of a damper,
bypass cutout or size of the intake opening. A piece of poly pad
filter or cloth over hardware cloth would act as a safety catch for
small findings and be turned in with the sweeps if desired. Also a
mini hood could be made from a register boot (ductwork piece) etc.
This would certainly provide some measure of protection for those who
don’t have the resources to get a properly designed and built system.
There are also available drywall bags designed to filter out the
smaller particles of drywall. Even a rudimentary system like this is
an improvement over what I suspect is used in too many cases, i.e.
nothing.
Dan The same type air system can be done with a cheap Bathroom
exhaust Fan fairly cheap, the fans can be had at Johnstone Supply.
They have stores in most large cities, the rest, vent pipe can be
just cheap cloths dryer hose connected to a register. Fluorides,
Cadmium and Sodium Bicarbonate aren’t the best things to breath and
even the Acid based plating solutions carry pretty severe warnings.
Johnstones is a great place to get electric motors and things like
vacuum pumps much cheaper than the major jewelers supply houses
One thought I just had is that for a small limited operation, such as a hobbyist; perhaps a good quality commercial canister vacuum with connections for both the intake and exhaust <snip> The velocity of the air could be adjusted by means of a damper, bypass cutout or size of the intake opening.
Be careful throttling the airflow like this, as the motor depends on
a certain airflow for cooling.
There are also available drywall bags designed to filter out the smaller particles of drywall. Even a rudimentary system like this is an improvement over what I suspect is used in too many cases, i.e. nothing.
These also feature in catalogues of woodworking equipment. They
filter out particulates, so may be useful around the polishing area,
but of course don’t help if you have a problem with fumes, as when
soldering or burning out wax. I don’t know how well the bags would
hold up catching waxy polishing residue … they may well block
(“blind”) rather quickly. But, as you say, anything is probably
better than nothing, for the hobbyist.
Kevin (NW England, UK)
I recently had a discussion with the local manager of our Johnstone
Supply, he told me that due to the increasing number of lawsuits they
are limiting their sales even to those in the HVAC field if you do
not have a license. A sad comment of our times. My thought behind a
good vacuum is that the pickup end could be moved and redirected from
place to place as needed. Johnstone does sell an excellent vacuum for
this purpose. I have used the same one many times to clean soot out
of oil furnaces in particular. It has held up to a lot of abuse and
mistreatment being shared among 10+ servicemen. WE originally got
ours from Sid Harvey another supplier big on the east coast. My idea
was that an extra hose should be purchased and hooked to the exhaust
while directed out the window etc. I have 20 years working in HVAC and
someday will get back to being more actively involved with rocks
minerals and jewelry. I appreciate the comments
Dan Wellman Speedway IN within sight of the 500 track
Thanks to all for the advice on ventilation. What a topic this
turned out to be. A ceiling mounted filtration unit from JET has
also been recommended. Simply exhausting the air doesn’t seem
right, filtration does. We certainly have our work cut out getting
up to speed on this.
The building plans are in the hands of an architect right now. If
this goes forward the studio will be on private property at our place
at the base of Mt Hood in Zig Zag Oregon. Good clean air up there
and I’d like to do my part maintaining it.
jerry
A ceiling mounted filtration unit from JET has also been recommended. Simply exhausting the air doesn't seem right, filtration does. We certainly have our work cut out getting up to speed on this.
The JET unit is worthless for the size particles generated in a
jewelry studio. It is meant for woodworking so it removes much
larger particles not the fine ones like investment and polishing
compounds. With regards to the idea of filtration you would need a
HEPA style filter that is good to sub .3 micron to get the harmful
dusts out of the air. This is an expensive filter that will require
a very powerful expensive fan motor to move the air through it.
Neither filter will do anything for fumes so you would need to add a
charcoal bed fume absorber as well. A complete and proper filtration
solution could cost more than the rest of the studio. Remember “The
Solution to Pollution is Dilution” exhausting the air is probably
your best option.
Jim