Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi All,
I am the electrician/welder on the maintenance staff at the high school I work at. I am in the process of setting up a dedicated welding room in our maintenance shop.

I have a 4' x 7' welding table, and am going to build a hood over the table to exhaust the gasses from welding. I would love to incorporate lighting into the hood, dedicated to illuminating the table, like task lighting.

Does anyone have suggestions as to the type of lights that might do the trick, or have any photos of your exhaust hood with lighting?

I am looking into L.E.D strip lights, mounted along the perimeter, controlled from a switch mounted under the table top, next to the exhaust fan controller.

Than you for your help.

Mike

Welcome aboard!

I'm going to copy this to "general shop talk", where more folks will see it.

Steve S

Welcome to the forum Dadio1963.

LEDs are an effective solution, and the "quick and dirty" is to use LED "rope lights" from Lowe's or Home Depot, and use p-clamps to secure them around the hood. More effective, and maybe more economical, is flourescent lighting... light bars with twin T-48 32 watt tubes, but they'll need lenses to protect them from spatter and grinder grit.

Given my choice, with students (and liability), the rope light LEDs are the safer option.

Here's one example from Home Depot:

http://www.homedepot.com/s/led+rope+lighting?NCNI-5

Two cents...

Steve S

Mike,
I like the idea of putting lighting in your exhaust hood. I do like the LED rope light as a cheap and fast way to get light, but I am not sure if it will put out enough lumens to do you much good. Maybe it will.
Here are two ideas for you. First if this is not going to be used a lot and no students are going to be using it, you could just get the $10 shop lights that Lowes and Home Depot have. They do not have the cover that Steve suggested but they are cheap. Second is they also offer these lights with the covers and they are $40-50 ish.
I would say go with the LED if you can get the output you need. I will have to keep this in mind if I ever get around to making a hood.
-Jonathan

Steve, Jonathan,
Gentlemen, thanks for the input!

There will be no students in this area, it is our facility maintenance area, so no over the top safety is required, just the normal over the top safety requirements needed

I was looking at the LED "rope" lights, but as you mentioned Jonathan, I'm not sure about the lumens they will produce. I'd like to see them in action, but the display at Menards was not working the day I was there.

I'm going to change the general lighting in the room to T-5 flourescent fixtures. These fixtures are quite bright, and if I stage them properly around the room, they might spread enough light to illuminate the work surface nicely.

I thought about installing a fluorescent fixture inside the hood, either suspended on a chain, or mounted to the top of the hood, but don't like the idea of exposing the fixture to the gasses from SMAW, as I think the lamps will end up with a coating of residue on the surface, degrading the light output.

It sounds like the rope lights are a good place to start, as the cost is low enough to warrant a try without killing the budget if they don't work out as well as I hope. Heck, if they don't work on the hood, I can add them inside some of the cabinets to ease the strain on these old eyes as I'm digging around for stuff.

Thanks for the help gents!!

Respectfully,
Mike A.

Dadio1963 wrote:I thought about installing a fluorescent fixture inside the hood, either suspended on a chain, or mounted to the top of the hood, but don't like the idea of exposing the fixture to the gasses from SMAW, as I think the lamps will end up with a coating of residue on the surface, degrading the light output.

Hi, Mike.

FYI, you can get clear protector sleeves for fluorescent tubes that might make them a viable option for you.

Or... If you're feeling crafty, you can get reels of 12v LED strip lights on eBay for cheap. Different brightnesses and shades of white. Just wire the end to a 12v wall wart. Add more strips if you need more light - one wall wart can drive dozens of strips.

Cheers,
Richard

Richard,
Thanks for the idea on the lamp sleeves, I had forgotten about that option, nice catch!

I also thought about installing a vapor proof sealed fixture. I think the issue would be a residue on the lens, and possible interference with the extraction of the fumes.

The rope lights are sounding better each conversation.

I will post pics once I'm finished with the build out.

Respectfully,

Mike A.

RichardH wrote:

Dadio1963 wrote:I thought about installing a fluorescent fixture inside the hood, either suspended on a chain, or mounted to the top of the hood, but don't like the idea of exposing the fixture to the gasses from SMAW, as I think the lamps will end up with a coating of residue on the surface, degrading the light output.

Hi, Mike.

FYI, you can get clear protector sleeves for fluorescent tubes that might make them a viable option for you.

Or... If you're feeling crafty, you can get reels of 12v LED strip lights on eBay for cheap. Different brightnesses and shades of white. Just wire the end to a 12v wall wart. Add more strips if you need more light - one wall wart can drive dozens of strips.

Cheers,
Richard

"Reels for cheap" sounds like something I could use in and around my camper... Do you have a link, or at least a good suggestion for a search term for e-bay?

BTW, How would you say "E-Bay" in "pig latin"???

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote: "Reels for cheap" sounds like something I could use in and around my camper... Do you have a link, or at least a good suggestion for a search term for e-bay?

Hi, Steve.

Here you go...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Sup ... te+3528+5m

I believe 3528 is a size of LED, and the common length is 5 meters, often with 300 LEDs evenly spaced. To give you an idea of size, the strips are about 1/4" wide, and the reels are about 4" in diameter. Ballpark, $6 for a reel with free shipping. Some are waterproof, and some come with adhesive backing.

The strips can be cut apart every foot or so, and there are solder pads at those points to wire in a 12v power source. One wall wart can run a ton of these lights. They probably make a clip-on connector to make the electrical connection, but I haven't looked.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks, Richard,

That is a great price.

My camper is already wired throughout with 12V for lighting, and since it's my full-time home (32' 5th-wheel), I'm happy to spend a few dollars on improvements. The 1156- automotive bulbs I light it with are inexpensive in quantity, but have a relatively short life and make a lot of heat.

Steve S