Hi everyone,

Does anyone use a fume extractor or ventilator while welding? Or is that something that you normally only find in production shops? I'm curious to know if using one (mostly for SMAW/TIG) would be practical or a complete waste of time/money.

In my setup, I normally weld in my garage with the garage door open, and a fan running for fumes. Whenever possible, I take stick projects outside, but it's not always practical to shield the line of sight to the arc, which is why I usually work in the garage. Also, since the bugs have returned in the spring, I've found that they go nuts for the torch light, and at night you can just forget about it. Due to this, I'm probably only going to be able to work with the garage door shut, which is why I'm thinking about ventilation.

I do have a large dust collector that I use for my wood working tools. I've been giving some thought to that, and it seems like it would be a trivial matter to plumb the output into a vent outside, instead of into the dust collector bags. My only concern would be a spark igniting the dust residue in the ducts, but a fine mesh metal screen over the intake would act like a spark arrester, and should solve this issue. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks
Mike