Welding Tips and Tricks

So to not de-rail Justthedad's thread anymore with regards to garage ventilation/cooling, since that went on pretty long/far, lol

Just using an LG 12k BTU portable A/C and of course ducting the hot air outside via the garage door cracked open just enough to squish the exhaust tube (which is wrapped in foil-backed fiberglass insulation). I sealed off the rest of that space at the bottom using some bricks I had in the backyard, along with the rest of the openings with foam insulation, the kind that is used to wrap the cold-pipes on central A/C units. No where near optimum, but I'm still happy with what I achieved considering how brutal it is right now.





Inside the garage: 18°F difference! I'll take it!!





Honestly, I think it would be another 5°F cooler if I didn't have this 3kW sound system in the garage. That tube amp is like a small space heater on full-blast!

Oh and I set a small fan atop some paint buckets to help blow the cool air into the center of the garage. Definitely makes a difference. Both drains have hoses leading outside to take any humidity that has condensed into liquid water outside.

not bad at all.
try not to squish the pipe. i know.......you an weld up a high flowing pipe ! (maybe something narrow but long that can sit under the door length wise?).
air flow is king.
one downside is those is they waste a fair bit of inside cool air blowing it outside. to be extra fancy you can rig up an outside air inlet as well.

o the amps <drool>

Its only squished a little bit to see the initial results, its not too bad. The best part is that the garage air is dry so its 10x better just from that alone. I'm debating a 24k BTU mini split A/C (which would set me back $2100 installed, or two of the Whynter 14k BTU portable units ($520 ea) that have inlet & outlets for the hot side. That would be 28k BTU cooling power but then I still have to deal with the ducting and they would take up floor space which is at a premium. Unless I build large shelves on the walls to lift them up and out of the way, closer to the ceilings. Choices......

Why not just one window unit?

BugHunter wrote:Why not just one window unit?

Window-less garage.

If it's a wood-framed structure (or cement block) I think I'd be cutting a hole and use the easier solution. 0 space required, and more efficient vs the units like you've got with the duct to vent the heat out. That restriction is not good.

In the interim, stop at Lowes and grab a duct piece to adapt from your flex-pipe to a narrow 2x10 square (steel parts). Will cost a few bucks ($10-15) but would increase your airflow considerably. Would fit your door opening much better too. Consider the top of the door as open though, so you might need to seal that somehow to increase efficiency.

BugHunter wrote:If it's a wood-framed structure (or cement block) I think I'd be cutting a hole and use the easier solution. 0 space required, and more efficient vs the units like you've got with the duct to vent the heat out. That restriction is not good.

In the interim, stop at Lowes and grab a duct piece to adapt from your flex-pipe to a narrow 2x10 square (steel parts). Will cost a few bucks ($10-15) but would increase your airflow considerably. Would fit your door opening much better too. Consider the top of the door as open though, so you might need to seal that somehow to increase efficiency.

Already thought about all that, except for the vent adapter. Might have to pick it up. I also noticed that even with fiberglass wrap on the duct, it is still pretty warm so I know that affects it. I might double wrap it.

House is brick and I don't want to cut a hole on the side of the house. 100% out of the question.
The top is sealed as I mentioned earlier. I got about $15-20 or so worth of foam insulation that I used all around the garage door, all 4 sides. Not perfect like I said, but so far it's working good.

Oscar wrote: House is brick and I don't want to cut a hole on the side of the house. 100% out of the question.

ceiling mount with lineset running through the ceiling and down into the soffit, down to the ground outside.
you can get good ceiling mount cassettes, they throw the air in 4 directions. may need a condensate pump (might have one built in). they are common for commercial buildings so you may even get one 2nd hand.

tweake wrote:

Oscar wrote: House is brick and I don't want to cut a hole on the side of the house. 100% out of the question.

ceiling mount with lineset running through the ceiling and down into the soffit, down to the ground outside.
you can get good ceiling mount cassettes, they throw the air in 4 directions. may need a condensate pump (might have one built in). they are common for commercial buildings so you may even get one 2nd hand.

Yup, the thought already crossed my mind.

Yup, it's a scorcher.






Garage is holding up the fort well, all things considered, at 94°F. 35% relative humidity, so the dryness really helps. Really it feels like about 85°F in the garage.

You guys are getting way too much into the weeds here. This is much simpler than you think.

Only one thing is needed to get your shop temp down and out of the 90's and 100's....

Build your shop anywhere other than southern Texas.

Spartan wrote:You guys are getting way too much into the weeds here. This is much simpler than you think.

Only one thing is needed to get your shop temp down and out of the 90's and 100's....

Build your shop anywhere other than southern Texas.

Nah, it's fine.

Oscar wrote:

Spartan wrote:You guys are getting way too much into the weeds here. This is much simpler than you think.

Only one thing is needed to get your shop temp down and out of the 90's and 100's....

Build your shop anywhere other than southern Texas.

Nah, it's fine.

I was in Houston very recently. F that hotness...

Houston is horrible because of the humidity.

Yeah if the house is brick that puts that out of the question. I even went back before I posted and tried to see if you had done anything to the rest of the door and I still missed the part where you said you covered it with foam. LOL. Whoops.

Here's the Gizmo I was talking about that might help you. I think you already knew this is what I meant. Obviously they have different sizes to choose from.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/IMPERIAL-10-in ... 1000237099

I think I'd have cut a hole in the wall and stuck a window unit, or 3 in by then. It's only been around 88-90 here in NC, and I still completely drench every inch of a shirt in under an hour welding outside even if I'm just wearing sleeves and a t shirt.

BugHunter wrote:Yeah if the house is brick that puts that out of the question. I even went back before I posted and tried to see if you had done anything to the rest of the door and I still missed the part where you said you covered it with foam. LOL. Whoops.

Here's the Gizmo I was talking about that might help you. I think you already knew this is what I meant. Obviously they have different sizes to choose from.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/IMPERIAL-10-in ... 1000237099

The only problem with that part is that it is metal. If I feed it hot air through the hose duct, and that part is still inside the garage, it will radiate some of that heat back in. For now this setup is fine until I decide on something. I have until January anyways when the temps will start to come down to about 95°F, LOL. At that point, I only need humidity control.

If your seriously looking at a mini split go with a Fujitsu or a Diakin. Get an oversized condenser for down there. One that’s rated for 110F.

Oscar wrote:The only problem with that part is that it is metal. If I feed it hot air through the hose duct, and that part is still inside the garage, it will radiate some of that heat back in. For now this setup is fine until I decide on something. I have until January anyways when the temps will start to come down to about 95°F, LOL. At that point, I only need humidity control.

throw a few rags on top of it

BugHunter wrote:

Oscar wrote:The only problem with that part is that it is metal. If I feed it hot air through the hose duct, and that part is still inside the garage, it will radiate some of that heat back in. For now this setup is fine until I decide on something. I have until January anyways when the temps will start to come down to about 95°F, LOL. At that point, I only need humidity control.

throw a few rags on top of it

If foil-backed fiberglass still radiates heat from the plastic duct, I seriously doubt "rags" will prevent convection from that part. It woild need to be ceramic coated, lol.

Oscar wrote:Houston is horrible because of the humidity.

Indeed it is, but don't you live a ways away from Houston? You are by the coast though, and that's where all the humidity comes from...Houston is right on the water basically. Isn't Houston like the "Hurricane Magnet" ?

BTW, Jonathan Lewis recently relocated to Texas, I think he moved to Eddy.

TraditionalToolworks wrote:

Oscar wrote:Houston is horrible because of the humidity.

Indeed it is, but don't you live a ways away from Houston? You are by the coast though, and that's where all the humidity comes from...Houston is right on the water basically. Isn't Houston like the "Hurricane Magnet" ?

BTW, Jonathan Lewis recently relocated to Texas, I think he moved to Eddy.

Yes I'm far from Houston.

Oscar wrote:If foil-backed fiberglass still radiates heat from the plastic duct, I seriously doubt "rags" will prevent convection from that part. It woild need to be ceramic coated, lol.

Everything radiates heat, doesn't matter what it is. If your two choices are suboptimal and less than suboptimal, I will choose suboptimal.

Take two pots of water that are boiling and set them off the stove, one with a towel over top of it and one without and tell me which one cools down faster. It won't even be close. Bottom line is you can either insulate it or not insulate it. I would say it's better than closing off half the pipe by crushing it.

Oscar wrote:

BugHunter wrote:Yeah if the house is brick that puts that out of the question. I even went back before I posted and tried to see if you had done anything to the rest of the door and I still missed the part where you said you covered it with foam. LOL. Whoops.

Here's the Gizmo I was talking about that might help you. I think you already knew this is what I meant. Obviously they have different sizes to choose from.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/IMPERIAL-10-in ... 1000237099

The only problem with that part is that it is metal. If I feed it hot air through the hose duct, and that part is still inside the garage, it will radiate some of that heat back in. For now this setup is fine until I decide on something. I have until January anyways when the temps will start to come down to about 95°F, LOL. At that point, I only need humidity control.

it will radiate sweat stuff all heat back into the room. its small and air flow rate is high.
the most important thing is keeping air flow rate up high.
i suspect the temp would be fairly low anyway as those units use the cool indoor air to go through the hot side, get heated up and blow out the door.
your loosing a large amount of cooling due the cool indoor air being pumped outside, so a little bit of uninsulated duct won't make any real difference.