Working welders describe their dream welding room and unit to maximize efficiency, including favorite tools, optimal layout, safety features, and useful equipment. Getty Images
We asked the on-the-job welder: “In order to maximize efficiency, what is your ideal welding room? Which tools, layouts and furnishings can help you make your work sing? Have you found a tool or equipment that you think is invaluable ?”
Our first reaction came from Jim Mosman, who wrote The WELDER’s column “Jim’s Cover Pass”. He worked as a welder for a small machining manufacturing company for 15 years, and then began his 21-year career as a welding lecturer at a community college. After retiring, he is now a senior customer training instructor at Lincoln Electric, where he conducts “training.” The “Trainer” seminar is for welding lecturers from all over the world.
My ideal welding room or area is a combination of the area I have used and the area currently used in my home store.
The size of the room. The area I currently use is about 15 x 15 feet, plus another 20 feet. Open areas and store steel for large-scale projects as needed. It has a 20-foot high ceiling, and the lower 8 feet is a flat gray steel wall made of roof slabs. They make the area more fire resistant.
Soldering station No. 1. I put the main soldering station in the middle of the work area, because I can work from all directions and reach it when I need it. It is 4 feet x 4 feet x 30 inches high. The top is made of ¾ inch thick steel plate. One of the two corners is 2 inches. Radius, the other two corners have a perfect square angle of 90 degrees. The legs and base are made of 2 inches. Square tube, on locking casters, easy to move. I installed a large vise near one of the square corners.
No. 2 welding station. My second table is 3 square feet, 38 inches high, and 5/8 inches thick at the top. There is an 18-inch high plate on the back of this table, which I use to fix the locking pliers, C-clamps, and layout magnets. The height of this table is aligned with the jaws of the vise on table 1. This table has a lower shelf made of expanded metal. I put my chisel hammer, welding tongs, files, lock pliers, C-clamps, layout magnets and other hand tools on this shelf for easy access. This table also has locking casters for easy movement, but it usually leans against a wall next to my welding power source.
Tool bench. This is a small fixed workbench measuring 2 feet x 4 feet x 36 inches high. It is close to the wall next to the welding power source. It has a shelf near the bottom for storing electrodes and electrode wires. It also has a drawer for storing consumables for GMAW welding torches, GTAW welding torches, plasma welding torches and flame welding torches. The workbench is also equipped with a bench grinder and a small bench drilling machine.
For The WELDER columnist Jim Mosman, the ideal welding room layout for small projects includes three workbenches and a metal wall made of steel roof panels made of fireproof. Picture: Jim Mosman.
I have two portable 4-1/2 inches. A grinder (one with a grinding disc and one with an abrasive disc), two drills (one 3/8 inch and one 1/2 inch), and two air die grinders are on this workbench. I installed a power strip on the wall behind it to charge portable hand tools. One 50 pounds. The anvil sits on the stand.
Toolbox. I use two large toolboxes with top boxes. They are located on the wall opposite the tool table. A toolbox contains all my mechanical tools, such as wrenches, sockets, pliers, hammers and drills. The other toolbox contains my welding related tools, such as layout and measurement tools, additional fixtures, cutting and welding torches and tips, grinding and sanding discs, and additional PPE supplies.
Welding power source. [To understand the innovation of power sources, please read "Welding power sources tend to be user-friendly."]
Gas equipment. Cylinders of oxygen, acetylene, argon, and 80/20 mixture are kept in an outside storage area. One gas cylinder of each shielding gas is linked in the corner of the welding room near the welding power source.
I saved three refrigerators. I use an old refrigerator with a 40-watt bulb to keep the electrodes dry. The other is used to store paint, acetone, paint thinner and paint spray cans to prevent them from being affected by flames and sparks. I also have a small refrigerator. I use it to refrigerate my drinks.
With this equipment and welding room area, I can handle most small projects. Larger items need to be completed in a large store environment.
Other welders made some shrewd comments on how to improve their efficiency and make their welding room sing.
Even when I work for others, I never skimp on tools. The pneumatic tools are Dotco and Dynabrade because they can be rebuilt. Craftsman tools, because if you break them, they will be replaced. Proto and Snap-on are great tools, but there is no guarantee of replacement.
For grinding discs, I mainly use TIG welding to process aluminum and stainless steel. So I use Scotch-Brite type, 2 inches, thick to very fine cutting discs with carbide tip burrs.
I am a mechanic and welder, so I have two folding beds. Kennedy is my first choice. Both have five drawers, a standpipe and a top box for small detail tools.
For ventilation, the downward-passing workbench is the best, but it is expensive. For me, the best table height is 33 to 34 inches. The workbench should have enough spaced or positioned fixture mounting holes to be able to contact the joints of the parts to be welded well.
Tools required include hand grinder, mold grinder, electric brush, hand brush, pneumatic needle gun, slag hammer, welding tongs, welding seam gauge, adjustable wrench, screwdriver, flint hammer, welding tongs, C-clamp, out of the box Knives and pneumatic/hydraulic lifts or wedge jacks.
For us, the best features to increase efficiency are workshop Ethernet cables connected to each welding power source, as well as productivity software and workshop cameras for monitoring workload and efficiency. In addition, it helps to understand work safety accidents and the source of damage to work, tools, and equipment.
A good welding station has a solid surface, protective screen, drawers for storing essentials, and wheels for easy movement.
My ideal welding room will be arranged so that it can be cleaned easily, and there is nothing on the floor that will trip over frequently. I want a large capture area to shoot out my grinding sparks in order to collect them for easy processing. It will have a wall-mounted vacuum cleaner to hook up the hose so I can just use the hose and then hang it up when I’m done (kind of like a whole house vacuum cleaner with water drops).
I like pull-down cords, wall-mounted air hose reels, and articulated wall-mounted theater spotlights so I can adjust the intensity and color of the light to the task area where I am working. The booth will have a very beautiful rolling, height-adjustable gas impact tractor seat stool weighing 600 pounds. One can sit on a beautiful padded leather case. It will include a 5 x 3 feet. Place a 4 x 4 foot self-extinguishing pad on the cold floor. Kneeling pad of the same material. The best welding screen ever is Screenflex. They are easy to move, install and disassemble.
The best way to ventilate and extract I found is to be familiar with the trapping zone restrictions of the intake air. Some intake surfaces only extend 6 to 8 inches of capture area. Others have more powerful 12 to 14 inches. I like that my trapping area is above the welding area so that the heat and smoke will rise and stay away from myself and my body. colleagues. I want the filter to be located outside the building and treated with carbon to absorb the most serious pollutants. Recirculating it through the HEPA filter just means that over time, I will pollute the interior of the building with heavy metals or metal fumes that HEPA cannot capture.
I found that the Lincoln Electric smooth hole feed hood with integrated light is the easiest to adjust and connect to the wall pipe. I really appreciate the variable speed suction, so I can adjust it according to the process I’m using.
Most pressure plates and welding tables lack load-bearing capacity or height adjustability. The best commercial off-the-shelf workbench I have used is the Miller welding table with vise and fixture slots. I am very interested in the Forster octagonal table, but I have no fun using it. For me, the optimal height is 40 to 45 inches. So I am welding and supporting myself for comfortable, no back pressure welding.
The indispensable tools are silver-stripe pencils and high-purity paint markers. Both large and small diameter nibs are coated with red paint; Atlas chipping hammer; blue and black Sharpies; carbide lathe connected to the handle Cutting blade; cemented carbide scribe; magnetic floor attachment; powerful hand tool JointMaster, with ball joint mounted on on/off magnet, used with modified vise; Makita electric variable speed mold grinder, adopts PERF hard Alloy; and Osborne wire brush.
Safety prerequisites are TIG finger heat shield, Tilson aluminum heat shield gloves, Jackson Balder auto-dimming helmet and Phillips Safety Schott filter glass gold-plated fixed lens.
All jobs require different environments. In some jobs, you need to carry all the kits with you; in other jobs, you need space. I think one thing that really helps TIG welding is the remote foot pedal. In an important job, cables are a hassle!
Welper YS-50 welding tongs help to cut wires and clean cups. Another most popular is a welder helmet with a fresh air supply, preferably from ESAB, Speedglas or Optrel.
I always find it easier to solder outdoors in the sun because I can better see the edges of the solder joints. Therefore, lighting is a key but neglected part of the welding room. If new welders cannot see the edges of the V-groove weld joints, they will miss them. After years of experience, I learned to rely more on my other senses, so lighting is not that important now, but when I study, being able to see what I’m soldering is everything.
Practice 5S and minimize the space. If you have to walk around, too much time is wasted.
Kate Bachman is the editor of STAMPING magazine. She is responsible for the overall editorial content, quality and direction of STAMPING Journal. In this position, she edits and writes technology, case studies, and feature articles; writes monthly reviews; and forms and manages the regular department of the magazine.
Bachman has more than 20 years of writer and editor experience in manufacturing and other industries.
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Post time: Sep-09-2021