Welding Tips and Tricks

hello everyone i recently bought my first home and the home owner before me built a huge wooden shed in the backyard ! looks nice big swing doors and windows and a air vent with electricity outlets . I wanted to ask if anyone has ever built a welding station inside a wooden shed?? im in welding school and work full time so its hard to stay late and get some welds in so i wanted to build my own welding station at home . I know wood and fire dont mix but i was wanting to practice more of tig welding and i think with the proper safety precautions I can get some good solid practice in . A little more back story Im also a truck driver and make a pretty good pay check and home every day . ive checked around and starting pay for welders coming straight out of school is pretty low like 10-12 dollar a hour range . So i wanted to keep my day job, still make good money and just practice at home and really get some good tig practice under my belt before i make a job move .

So would it be a good idea to buy a welding equipment and throw it in a wooden shed ??

I wouldn't be to worried about TIG welding so much but grinding may well be a problem!
You could line a area out with cement or metal sheeting to make it safer or make up a car sized bay from it... does the building have enough height for a mezzanine floor?

Just line the appropriate walls for the welding area with Hardie board, and you're good to go.

Tile the floor, or hardy board it and find some old steel roofing, preferably white, to cover the walls.
Seal the floor to wall joint to prevent creepers from getting under it.
Always quite welding an half hour before leaving

My work shed is smaller, and plywood floors. I only do tig inside of it. All grinding is done outside, anything with abrasive chop saw outside (even if it wasn't wood floor and all, I would still do outside to keep grinding dust to a minimum around my equipment). Any stick I do is outside as well (no problem with stick outdoors) and the only mig I really run is flux core, so again no problem outside. If you are only doing Tig, I wouldn't worry unless you are dropping hot plate on flammable material. If you want to do stick as well, just get some good long leads that let you go outside (besides, it's smokey, and outdoors you don't have to worry about ventilation).

thanks guys! ill be posting up some pics soon of my shed so you can get a idea of what im working with . I would love to practice tig at home and make some money on the side . Anyway yea its a single story shed all wood i was thinking of maybe buying a nice miller welding table or something im in the "planning stage " right now i got 5 months left in school and id hate to forget everything my $20000 worth of tuition bought me lol

My shop a 12x20 prefab wood building and I weld in it all the time. No real issues as long as you use common sense about fire etc. I just finish a small cement pad on the rear and a new outdoor welding table. I rather not breath the smoke if I can avoid it. I like running Duel Shield and it put out a ton of smoke. I'm still working on flume extraction so I can weld indoors during bad weather.

At work we have a tent set up with plywood floors and o.s.b. walls to handle overflow welding work. They coated the whole interior of the structure with fire retardant and have had no issues with grinding, MIG and stick welding. They just applied it with a hand pump sprayer, let it dry and went to town.

Easiest thing to cover the walls with is some thin sheet metal, 20-22 gauge. Drill a few holes in it over the joists, and screw it in. Flame proof, spark proof, and you can use magnets to hold your stuff to it. A decent piece of metal or aluminum plate for a welding surface on a base with casters, or foldable.

As to TIG welding, just use proper electrical service extended to your shed. I too would Stick weld outdoor. Grab a decent bench vise, make a portable stand, and clamp your work in it if you want to Stick, or even TIG using it. Just keep a Fire Extinguisher nearby enough. Its not so much for the welding/fire risk, but anytime you "work" in a wood building its just good common sense.