# fume extractors



## Chris Cramer (Jul 2, 2019)

Before we move into our new house I want to find a better ventilation system. Since the area of the new garage what will be made into a shop will be more confined than the entire area of our old garage, I've been thinking a fume extractor would be the best option; but I think we all know how expensive they are. Does anybody know of some more affordable fume extractors that would work well enough for a single bay garage, or some other more affordable options?


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## CalgaryPT (Jul 2, 2019)

Assuming you intend to weld stick or flux core?


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## Tom O (Jul 3, 2019)

We just put this fan unit in yesterday it is speed controlled 200 cfm wide open and was about $85.00 on Amazon.


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## Bofobo (Jul 3, 2019)

I have one similar to the above, used flex-spout with this fan inline unfiltered and out a drier vent. Works great but it needs to be inches away from the work to be effective. (Standard fume extractors are basically vacuum with no bag and still must be just above the work.) 

You are removing vaporized metal dust from the air more than the inert gasses you might think are the problem, but they are pulled from the atmosphere and bottled. Every type of welding should use an extractor because of this.


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## Tom O (Jul 3, 2019)

We bought ours to reduce the temp in the garage / fumes and being a smoker it doesn’t hurt lol. Now I’ll be looking at getting a remote thermostat preferably with a auto and a continuous run / off feature I don’t want it to run when the furnace is on.


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## Chris Cramer (Jul 3, 2019)

I do flux core, stick, aluminum mig welding, and tig welding. I also use an accetaline torch and a plasma cutter which also produce a good amount of gas and soot. I find the aluminum mig welding and the flux core deliver the most smoke, without a fan running the area turns white even with the garage door open. If a mounted extractor were only effective when it sits inches away from your work, I feel you would be very limited to where you could work; and
do most extractors also work on collecting dust from grinding and not only the lighter particles from fumes,to prevent the place from turning black with grindings?


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## CalgaryPT (Jul 3, 2019)

I'm sure I'll be the bad example here but I don't use one. I have an attached garage and when we moved here 20+ years ago, I built one on wheels. It was essentially a mobile welding bench with a fume hood over it made from two range fans (I'm guessing about 150 CFM each). About the same time I switched from O/A and stick to MIG and TIG—and there just weren't enough fumes to worry about it. As pointed out it needs to be right over the weld area to be effective, but not too powerful that it sucks the shielding gas away. Even when I had my plasma table I didn't need it. I guess it's because for the type of hobby welding I do, and for the length of time I am striking an arc, I don't generate enough fumes to lose sleep over. If I am welding for longer periods of time I just open the garage door. If I were doing so much welding that I needed one, I'd be crossing the line from hobby to commercial venture, which voids your homeowner's insurance in almost all cases.

I'm sure there is some detailed medical study out there that documents how even a small amount of fume causes cancer. But at this point in my life, reading these studies is more harmful to me than the fumes I inhale. As I said, I'm sure I'm a poor example, but at the price of these extractors and for a hobbyist, they are out of my league.

Just my 2 cents....if I were younger and smarter I'd probably feel differently, or avoid the hobby altogether. For people who have made their own, good for you...maybe it extracts paint fumes as well which would be a good thing.


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## kevin.decelles (Jul 4, 2019)

The original owner of my shop did a fair amount of painting and installed an explosion proof fan in the back wall. 

It'll pull the main 11' garage door in about 1/2 inch if you don't open a window or raise the door a few inches

It vents out the back














I find it useful when welding and sand casting to recycle air, but am looking for something more focused

I picked up some boxes squirrel cage fans (big ones) at an auction. I plan to adapt those, but need to find source for 12-18 inch piping








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## Janger (Jul 4, 2019)

My weld bench has a simple bathroom exhaust fan and a flexible dryer vent that I wiggle around and put above the works. Helps a lot it’s cheap. I think Tom Os 200 cfm fan would cost the same and be reasonable effective. There are those little welding masks that fit under your helmet too... with different filters available. Might be worth considering. And there are those fresh air helmets too.


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## kevin.decelles (Jul 4, 2019)

I wear the respirator w/filters as well. Weld for an hour then look at the filter....... you'll quickly start wearing it all the time


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## Tom Kitta (Jul 4, 2019)

My filter turns brown from white in a about an hour or less. The problem is the dust in the air in the shop gets everywhere. 

Now opening garage door is nice and gets clean air in very quickly BUT not so nice in the winter time. Blowers etc. are also nice except winter. 

There are sometimes OLD welding fume recyclers on sale - sometimes as low as $300 but they are HUGE. I mean they are at least the footprint of a Bridgeport or more.

Helmets with clean air are nice but still don't help with fumes all over the shop that are hard to get rid of - it stinks even 2 days later so unless you want to wear that thing for days its not ideal.

Whenever I can I simply weld outside - solves most issues.

Indoors a lot can be done with TIG which is clean... other then a lifetime supply of stick electrodes I have that make stick welding almost free compared to TIG.


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## Tom O (Jul 4, 2019)

Living behind a baseball diamond/soccer field i dont like having the garage door open because you never know when a lowlife is looking at your stuff!


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## Tom Kitta (Jul 4, 2019)

I open it just a bit - say 1m & all my machines are at the back walls. 

Besides how are they going to steal a Bridgeport? I had surface grinder outside for almost a year and thieves didn't touch it.


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## Tom O (Jul 5, 2019)

We use a hydraulic bucket under ours we were thinking about having a smaller roll up door going out to the yard for the quad or anything else to pass through but it came down to the space thing. It’s the tooling and plasma chop saws and all the carryable things that I worry about. Last week I had a false alarm on the back door and after racing home ( beating the cops ) was happy to find things alright I need to get a concrete drill and put a 2” hole in my house so I can finish hooking up the cc cameras.


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## CalgaryPT (Jul 5, 2019)

Tom O said:


> I need to get a concrete drill and put a 2” hole in my house so I can finish hooking up the cc cameras.


We have an attached garage. After countless people I didn't even know stopping by to peek in (some even asked to borrow tools), I installed CCTV over 15 yrs ago. I'm now on my third NVR and have 8 cameras. I love them. Countless studies have been done on this, especially in the UK: CCTV does NOT prevent crime directly. But it helps prosecute, and more importantly it helps you change behaviour and adjust physical security to help prevent it. For example, it allows you to see weak areas in your security and add more lights, or know when the problematic time frames are in your neighbourhood (Friday nights, end of school year, when bars let out, etc). You're better off having one or two good cameras with POE and continuously record than buy a package deal with many cameras. Most are tested in warm climates and won't survive Canadian winters. Places that sell commercial equipment are best. Indoor (inside your shop) are OK, but you won't see crime patterns unless you have outdoor cameras; that's where the good intel is.

Good for you for thinking ahead like this. You'll see some crazy things. I could write a book on the stuff I've captured. If you ever want to see the far end of the scale and what CCTV in a really bad neighbourhood is like, check out this guy's videos in Chilliwack: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfc5HgiA90PPRBm3Slx2UCA/videos


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## Tom O (Jul 5, 2019)

I have 2 in front pointing down the alley but will probably put 3 the wire is already there and 2 at the back door leaving one in the garage itself.


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## Tom Kitta (Jul 5, 2019)

Yeah I may get the cameras from COSTCO - at least one of my neighbors will no longer try to damage my water hoses. I may also catch the a-hole whom cut half my extension cord. I mean seriously? Extension cord? I live about 300m north of Temple. My parents are in Marlborough Park. They had a guy looking for his dog few times. He seems to never find it & has sticky hands. Notice the guys on bicycles are frequent offenders. I am scared for my garage - need to add extra lock to the door - I have no windows so they cannot just break the glass.

But nothing like the guy from BC. BC near Vancouver is scary place. The crime rates in some areas are so high they are higher then some hot spots in Mexico! 

The main problem is rather "soft" criminal justice system - on "Cops of Vancouver" we have a police officer telling a crack head across the street that he is under arrest and wait for him (!) Dude knows the system, waits for the cop, gets handcuffs on and not much later for non-violent crime he is out again.


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## Tom O (Jul 5, 2019)

I bought mine at Costco then bought longer cables on eBay to go from the living room to the garage / alley.  I’ll use 2 “ pipe to run it to the garage that’s big enough to run coax / internet cable so it’s hardwired to the Telus box / putter. There is a motion sensor in the garage so I’m not too worried about the windows but they will get some form of bars on them. What I Really hate is the garage doors! All that stuff in there and it’s locked by 1/8 x5/8 flatbar that extends 1/4” if your lucky into basically sheet metal rails locked by a cheap ass generic key lock.
Well enough of that I’m fine now!


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## CalgaryPT (Jul 5, 2019)

Put a commercial magnetic (reed) Overhead switch on your garage door. Don't use a indoor one because the steel dust from the shop gets inside them (see how mine is covered in it). Commercial ones are sealed:

https://www.interlogix.com.au/reed-switch-sm-overhead-spdt-3-76mm-gap-1-5ft-armourded-cable

You can interface easily even with the cheap Ideal RC alarm systems. Practically even a farm jack under a garage door isn't much good; it will tear it apart before it lifts it and you will hear this. The best thing about even a cheap alarm on these is, (if you buy the right one) they remind you when you left your door open at night...but you need to consider this when buying a system so that it isn't beeping when your door is open on purpose. This is mine:


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## kevin.decelles (Jul 5, 2019)

I went with a single nest camera. Continuous stream to interest , instant notifications etc. Not cheapest solution , but sure is slick, and survived the winter facing north into the wind



It won't stop a Damn thing , but at least it can assist cops in responding and help me call my neighbours (we have a watch group). 

I live out on an acreage , make a point of stopping unusual cars etc . Usually 19 year old City kids looking for a place to "park"

Almost drove over a couple who were "coupling" last week with my dirt bike .... hidden away in the tall grass along the irrigation canal 




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## Bofobo (Jul 6, 2019)

Tom O said:


> Living behind a baseball diamond/soccer field i dont like having the garage door open because you never know when a lowlife is looking at your stuff!


What ever is easy to carry, drive away in, has high return or is quickly flipped are target items. Machinery is not an easy flip has low return and not very easy to run away with. Chain saw, bolt cutters, batt drills, angle grinder, etc are hot items to thieves as well as quick escape assist methods. I had my shop prowled this spring, and 30 other garages and back yards randomly on a 3 block radius (guy went out after snow fall) didn't take anything, but a couple weeks later my roommate spent several hours waiting for a pickup truck and bunch of guys to vacate the alley in the middle of the night, and now all my gates and doors are screwed shut and i got a k9 system.


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## CalgaryPT (Jul 6, 2019)

Bofobo said:


> What ever is easy to carry, drive away in, has high return or is quickly flipped are target items. Machinery is not an easy flip has low return and not very easy to run away with. Chain saw, bolt cutters, batt drills, angle grinder, etc are hot items to thieves as well as quick escape assist methods. I had my shop prowled this spring, and 30 other garages and back yards randomly on a 3 block radius (guy went out after snow fall) didn't take anything, but a couple weeks later my roommate spent several hours waiting for a pickup truck and bunch of guys to vacate the alley in the middle of the night, and now all my gates and doors are screwed shut and i got a k9 system.


When the Tuscany LRT first went in, crime shot up, especially car prowling. Sometimes two different groups in one evening blessed me with a visit. What astonished me was that many of the creatures were girls. They look for unlocked cars, valuables and garage door openers especially. I've had so many police at my house gathering video evidence over the years I can't even count. Even when I am not hit, my neighbours still send the cops to my place.

I also bought a cheap trail cam from Canadian Tire. When I see activity in an area that is a dead zone for my CCTV, I place the trail cam there temporarily so I can understand what's going on.

Between the CCTV, Trail Cam, and alarming the garage door, I can't tell you guys how much better I sleep at night. Ironically, the one time the night crawlers actually broke into a vehicle instead of just prowling was my son's car at 0730 hrs. My dog was barking at them through the window but I just told him to be quiet from bed. Sure enough, two guys were stealing my kid's tools. My dog gave me the stink eye for two weeks afterwards.

Cops told me that machinery and tools left outside—even if old and no good—send a signal to night crawlers that the good tools are inside and you just ran out of room for the old stuff. Makes sense.


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## Tom O (Jul 6, 2019)

I went to Princess Auto and picked up one of these thermostats for $44.00 bucks it can be left on or set to min / max above or below the temp settings.


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## Tom Kitta (Jul 7, 2019)

Crazy - guess my neighborhood is not that bad then - maybe living next to some of the poorest areas is a kind of a protection - they just assume you are as poor as they are and go steal from the "rich". This would be reverse of what is usually in the US - where they don't bother going to far from their home and it is poor on poor action. US generally is far more safe as far as stealing then Canada - rarely doors are locked and if they are its single door knob lock. Through you do have more gun action.


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## Tom O (Jul 7, 2019)

That’s what I tell people
“ Never in your own neighbourhood you may need them as a character witness “

According to DR Scot
“ From the day he was born he was bad “


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## YYCHM (Jul 7, 2019)

Boy..... did this thread derail or what?

I'm in the NE.  The last thing to grow legs was a 6V battery (one of two) from my travel trailer.  The thieves cut the battery cables but left the battery box and tiedown straps intact.  The batteries now wear a paddle locked chain around them.  I wonder where that battery ended up once they discovered it was a 6V LOL.

The other thing that growed legs was some fire wood we had stacked beside our garbage bins.  I guess if it's not in the yard proper it's free for the taking?

As for vandalism.  Some 10 years ago some idiot went down the back alley throwing large rocks through the back window of any vehicle parked there.  5 or so vehicles got hit.  About 8 years ago a pumpkin launched out of vehicle took out the side mirror on my mini-van (it was parked in the front).  Daughter had the tires slashed on her car.  Son's fiancé had a car window smashed while we were in Mexico (her fault, she had too may goodies in plain view).

Minor stuff compared to a house 3 down.  They had their car totaled while parked on the street.  A drugged out teen drove a car (not his and no licence) into their living room about 3 years ago and later that year some space cadet drove his truck across the park into their garage taking one wall out.  Also had their garage broken into and power tools (table saw etc.) stolen. That property is currently listed for sale.

On occasion I have to tell the drug dealers parked behind the house to take it else where.

Now back to "fume extractors".

This is my boolit casting setup.






Drier vent stuff.  That's an 6" fan.





There is another 4" fan mounted just above the hood that sits over my lead pot (not shown).

Seems to do the trick.  Not setting the smoke alarms off now.


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## Tom O (Jul 8, 2019)

Should work good I wouldn't do lead without one! I'm getting the itch to get mine out and melt some aluminum / brass I was out at cross iron today looking at their cast iron cookware they have a nice cast bread pan for a mold.


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## Chris Cramer (Dec 16, 2019)

how much heat do these fume extractors remove from the room when working in the winter? We are working on installing a heater into the garage, and if I put together a fume extractor without a filtration system that runs out the side of the building, then how much heat is usually taken along with it?


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## Tom O (Dec 17, 2019)

That’s hard to say they come with a speed control and would depended on the amount of smoke produced as well as the intake size.


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## Janger (Dec 17, 2019)

I have a 180CFM bathroom fan running when welding. It vents outside and a flexible dryer vent tube goes to the fan and above the welding. This cools down the garage but not overly so. Do the math - what is the volume of the garage divided by the fan CFM. That's how quick the air leaves and you'll need to replace it with heated air. In practice it's ok for gas MIG and TIG but not for flux core or stick. For those I want the garage door open.


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## DPittman (Dec 17, 2019)

My portable fume extractor biologically heats and humidifies the air before turning it back to the shop.   If you don't care to do it the same way as me, and I suggest you don't, then anything is better than nothing.  

Unless you use a heat exchanger, you just have to live with taking out dirty warm air and replacing that with fresh and cold air.


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## Colten Edwards (Dec 30, 2019)

kevin.decelles said:


> The original owner of my shop did a fair amount of painting and installed an explosion proof fan in the back wall.
> 
> It'll pull the main 11' garage door in about 1/2 inch if you don't open a window or raise the door a few inches
> 
> ...



Have you thought about concrete forms?


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## kevin.decelles (Dec 30, 2019)

Not sure what you're getting at?


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## Colten Edwards (Dec 30, 2019)

kevin.decelles said:


> Not sure what you're getting at?


I picked up some boxes squirrel cage fans (big ones) at an auction. I plan to adapt those, but need to find source for 12-18 inch piping.  
Round concrete piling forms. should be able to get from local box store's. 

I should have checked the date on the post before replying since I'm sure you have already solved this issue by now


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## kevin.decelles (Dec 30, 2019)

Thx, that clarifies it. I have t touched the squirrel cage yet, still on the list


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## Chris Cramer (Mar 15, 2020)

I tried using a 1044 CFM air cleaner from princess auto, but even at 1044 CFM it didn't seem to have enough suction to capture all the fumes. When placed 1 ft away from the weld it could capture about 50% of it; but welding that close would often allow some of the spatter to hit the filter and melted some of it. I'm thinking I might as well put together an exhaust system with an inline fan and duct work.


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## Chris Cramer (Jul 11, 2022)

.

I finished putting together this extractor with 2 inline fans connected to some flexible solid aluminum duct welded to a mechanical arm that I designed. The arm rotates on a steel plate mounted to the wall, and holds its position on both joints with a series of strong springs.


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## Chris Cramer (Jul 11, 2022)

I finished that fume extractor quite a while ago, and it works well for extracting fumes; but on the other hand, I am trying to build a well working downdraft table where I do my frequent grinding with my belt grinder and angle grinder. The fume extractor does have enough air flow to capture metal dust if it is placed right in front of the grinding, but I still get excessive metal dust spred over my bench and against the walls. So far just the way the frame/body is designed it still keeps the dust within the table but the 880cfm extraction fan that I have sucking air from a narrow area under the table top doesn't create any suction through the holes in the table top.


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## Janger (Jul 13, 2022)

Chris Cramer said:


> .
> 
> I finished putting together this extractor with 2 inline fans connected to some flexible solid aluminum duct welded to a mechanical arm that I designed. The arm rotates on a steel plate mounted to the wall, and holds its position on both joints with a series of strong springs.


Ingenious Chris.


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