Hello from Heathrow Area

[Mr Grumpy]

Evening All

Found this superb forum about a year ago when thinking about buying a MIG welder, and I'm grateful for the info on here, as it saved me wasting time and money on duff equipment.

I had settled on a Clarke 160TM, but ended up going for the GYS SmartMIG 162, from Weldequip. Steve's customer service was excellent.

Apart from limited experience with stick welding on a boat trailer nearly 30 years ago, I'm a novice. I've got a mate teaching my lad (14) and I. We had an hour and a half to two hour session on Monday night, and my mate seemed pleased with our last welds of the night. We did half a length each (pic below). We were welding in the back garden, and fortunately there wasn't much of a breeze.

Our initial practise session was using 3mm material, and we'll be moving on to thinner material next session. Probably 1.5mm rectangle box section, which we'll be using for our first proper project we'll be doing with my Dad.

We're using Hobby Gas (9ltr 5% mix) from Adams Gas.

My next challenge will be to make our small workshop welding-proof. Biggest problem is the flooring, which is a light grey lino-type flooring, which has been great up to now. Mostly it's only had to cope with saw-dust. It won't last 2 minutes with welding spatter flying about. I'll probably end up using hard board as a temp cover for now, as welding blankets would be an expensive solution to start with. I don't really want to permanently remove the covering at this stage, but any alternative suggestions would be welcome.

Cheers

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum: Your practice welds look good.

Re the floor covering, it's always a problem with any flamable type flooring and theres not a lot you can do cheaply, the molten blobs that land at your feet are not the real issue..you can see them, it's the ones that sneak under benches etc that come into contact with something and smoulder away slowly.

The main thing is to have a good check around for a while once you have finished welding and before you leave the workshop and of course have a fire extinguisher to hand.

 

[Wallace]

I have a gallon or so of a flame retardant liquid used in the film and music industry for treating wood if that's any good to you. I'm in Staines.

Mike

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks for the replies Gents. Didn't realise they'd been any as I didn't get a mail. I'll need to check my settings to make sure I get email notifications to subscribed topics.

Welcome to the forum: Your practice welds look good.

Re the floor covering, it's always a problem with any flamable type flooring and theres not a lot you can do cheaply, the molten blobs that land at your feet are not the real issue..you can see them, it's the ones that sneak under benches etc that come into contact with something and smoulder away slowly.

The main thing is to have a good check around for a while once you have finished welding and before you leave the workshop and of course have a fire extinguisher to hand.

Good point. As well as covering the floor, I'll be positioning welding blankets close to the job, and hopefully contain as much spatter as possible.

I was in Machine Mart on Saturday picking up some magnets and clamps, and was going to pick up a decent size CO2 extinguisher. They had a 2kg one which would have been perfect, but it was just under £60, which seemed a bit expensive. I've had a quick look online and it looks like I'll be able to pick one up for around £30 delivered, so glad I gave the MM one a miss.

I have a gallon or so of a flame retardant liquid used in the film and music industry for treating wood if that's any good to you. I'm in Staines.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I hadn't considered anything like that. I'll drop you a PM.

Cheers

 

[Wallace]

I have in the past turned the wire feed down and the gas flow up to extinguish underseal fires and smouldering felt on cars, not as effective as a blast from a CO2 extinguiser though. Is your workshop brick built or wood?

Sound advice from Cumbriasteve about a good check around once you are finished, I tend to have a tidy up, service the welder and sweep the floor wall to wall calling it my fire watch period!

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Mike

 

[Drains]

I've worked in places built of all sorts of things and honestly the only welding related fires I've ever seen have been in cotton rag and steel wool. Wood and Lino might be flammable but they are hard to light. If you're really worried about the floor, put down some board on top, NOT, blankets as they will be difficult and uncomfortable to walk on and, in fact dangerous.
Co2 extinguishers will work for some fires (look it up), but for a decent fire in flammables they're a waste of time. Foam is by far the best and most versatile. Powder is cheap but gets everywhere and is a nightmare to clean up, plus it's a little caustic and you don't want it left on equipment. Saying all that co2 for very limited fires is good as there's no residue.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

I have in the past turned the wire feed down and the gas flow up to extinguish underseal fires and smouldering felt on cars, not as effective as a blast from a CO2 extinguiser though. Is your workshop brick built or wood?

Sound advice from Cumbriasteve about a good check around once you are finished, I tend to have a tidy up, service the welder and sweep the floor wall to wall calling it my fire watch period!

To alter the Email notifications for threads you have posted in or created go to:
User CP / Your Control Panel / Settings & Options / Edit Options / Messaging & Notification / Default Thread Subscription Mode and select Instant, daily or weekly notifications as suits you.

Mike

Workshop is brick built, but it isn't big. It's about 4m x 3.5m. I've got benches with storage underneath, so I'll need to close off the front of those with welding blankets. For small jobs it'll be fairly straight forward I think. The longer stuff will be a bit trickier. I'll probably end up with about 4 or 5 blankets. I'm going to have a look at getting a remote smoke alarm, too.

Email setting altered

Cheers

I've worked in places built of all sorts of things and honestly the only welding related fires I've ever seen have been in cotton rag and steel wool. Wood and Lino might be flammable but they are hard to light. If you're really worried about the floor, put down some board on top, NOT, blankets as they will be difficult and uncomfortable to walk on and, in fact dangerous.
Co2 extinguishers will work for some fires (look it up), but for a decent fire in flammables they're a waste of time. Foam is by far the best and most versatile. Powder is cheap but gets everywhere and is a nightmare to clean up, plus it's a little caustic and you don't want it left on equipment. Saying all that co2 for very limited fires is good as there's no residue.

Thanks for the link. I've only got a couple of very small powder ones at present. I'll go for a decent size CO2 & a foam one, too. As for the flooring, I'm more concerned with it being ruined than catching fire. Definitely going for hardboard covering now.

Cheers