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Safety -- Make sure you are safe!

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  #1  
Old 2016-05-17, 7:42am
dragonglassllc dragonglassllc is offline
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Angry Ventilation HELP PLEASE

Okay, I am finally going to bite the bullet and just ask my questions. I am fairly new to lampworking and am very addicted. I recently got a Phantom and decided to make a new double workbench with much better ventilation. I will have a Phantom on one side and my RedMax on the other. I would like to be able to do some fuming in the future and want to make sure my family and I are safe.

I have read every thread, post, and journal I can find on the subject and I am more confused than I was when I started. My work station is in the third car portion of my three car garage. My bench is 36" deep by 8' wide and there is 80" from the top of my bench to the ceiling. We will be cutting a hole through the ceiling into the attic and then out the side of the house. I cannot go straight outside because my home has a brick façade up to about the attic height.

I have decided to go with two funnel vents, one for each torch, but beyond that I am stuck. I was originally going to have one fan for both vents and tie them together with ducting, but I have spoken with some people that said that would cut down on the CFMs dramatically, so I will have two separate fans one for each vent and then maybe tie the ducting together after the fans in the attic so I only have to put one vent on the outside of the house.

I know we don't want flex tubing, at least most threads say that is bad, even though you see pictures of it everywhere, so smooth ducting it is. I was thinking 8" because I have read some people are actually changing out their 6" to 8" and anything higher seems to be harder to find.

My biggest problem here seems to be the fan(s) I need. I have read to take the square footage of your opening and multiply that by 125 to get the CFMs you need. The opening of my funnel will probably be 10-12" but 125 CFM I know is not enough. I have also read you should at least have a 850 CFM fan but then some people seem to have 300-500 and say it works fine. I was looking on Grainger's website for fans that have about 850 CFM and then there is the issue of Static Pressure.

Not all of the fans show what the CFMs are when you add in Static Pressure so then I am not even sure if 850 CFM will be enough because my fan will be at least 7 1/2' from the funnel opening. I found a calculator online for Static Pressure but I cannot figure out how to use it.

I am just so confused at this point and feel I will never get this bench built. Can someone please just tell me the best fan type and CFM I need for my scenario?
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  #2  
Old 2016-05-17, 8:23am
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Lorraine Chandler Lorraine Chandler is offline
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I bought a squirrel cage fan from the HVAC graveyard...behind one of our local heating and air conditioning shops. He charged us $45.00 for it. We cleaned it up and then hubby rewired it with a swamp cooler switch so I have three speeds on it.

You can see pics of it and how hubby set it up in my very old "horse trailer thread" in the studio forum". (Just type horse trailer into the search box)

We no longer have the trailer and are setting up a new studio where it will be on the outside of the building 8" smooth ducted in.

The lowest speed is around 1100 CFM, it is perfect, the highest is almost too high around 2300 I think, and I use it for the really bad stuff, fuming, silver leaf etc.

It is very loud in the shop. Outside is much better.

Hope this helps:waving
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  #3  
Old 2016-05-17, 12:01pm
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AmorphousDesigns AmorphousDesigns is offline
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At some point you simply have to bite the bullet, select the best fan you can based on your research to date (no one will just tell you what to get) and then perform a smoke test to see if you nailed it. Good luck.
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Old 2016-05-17, 12:37pm
dragonglassllc dragonglassllc is offline
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Thank you both for your replies. I guess I am scared that I will get the wrong one. I just wish there was an industry standard calculator that would say this size duct, this far, this torch, this work and viola. This is the CFM you need
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Old 2016-05-17, 2:33pm
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There is, as you stated, a general formula for an enclosed, hood or box-type work area (125 CFM per sq. ft. of opening). The problem is you are using a funnel-type capture system. That makes things more complicated as you are not capturing the fumes as effectively. You will need more CFM. If you switch to an enclosed hood or box-type work area, you can calculate the necessary CFM very easily.
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Old 2016-05-17, 2:35pm
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Getting your ventilation right is a process. I don't know if anyone got it right on the first try and people still disagee about what is adequate. Lol.
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  #7  
Old 2016-05-23, 6:18pm
anniekuhndesigns anniekuhndesigns is offline
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Red face I'm with you.

I'm with you too. I am setting up a teaching studio and am wondering what kind of system will take the yucky air out and pull the good air in. Any suggestions?
Another question for me is how far from the wall should the torch be? Our workbench is 29" but that doesn't sound deep enough.
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Old 2016-05-23, 10:16pm
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Speedslug Speedslug is offline
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Unless you have it pointed parallel to the bench surface you get to add in the upward angle.


The higher the angle the more room for flame length.


You are going to want something on the back wall to put up with hot shocked glass anyway ( Cement tile backer board works good or sheet metal if you can get it ) so as long as you are say 14 inches from the last licks of flame you should be ok.


Lots of folks mount the torch right at the edge and then add elbow supports in front ( see the pictures of a 'creation station').


Others just mount another surface that juts out a little further for the 3 foot by 3 foot torch area some kind of non burnable surface on top of that.
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