How big does a welding bay need to be?

Date 05-13-2004 20:37

All I would say is that paint storage and welding do not mix well. Unless all of your paint needs are water based coating, I would like to see paint storage as a separate area from welding.
As far as the size of the weld shop is concerned, I have always encountered problem with the height of the bays more than the width or length. Will have any overhead cranes? Then hook height may be an area you need to concern yourself about.

By bigdemps Date 05-14-2004 13:28

All the paints are water-based latex but like you, I still don't like storing them in a welding area. We ARE going to put in an overhead crane, but it will not be used for loading/unloading semi-trucks, only pull behind trailers on pickups. We build some of our own wrought iron fencing, ladder racks for pickups and such and we'll use the crane to flip fence panels over for welding the backside, or to lift sheet steel and expanded metal from a vertical storage rack. We built our own overhead crane in our present shop which has 12' ceilings and you're right, lifting height is an issue but the new shop will have 18' ceilings and power ventillation so I think we're pretty well set on that part of the picture.

Thanks for your help. I appreciate any ideas I can get to help me win the boss over to my way of thinking.

By billvanderhoof (****)

Date 05-14-2004 04:53

http://www.osha.gov/
There is a search box here. I tried "welding" and got over 800 hits. Try different words like workspace or work area. It's likely to be a dig but osha has a standard for nearly everything.
Good luck
Bill

By bigdemps Date 05-14-2004 13:32

Thanks for the search box tip, I'll check it out. I know you're right about OSHA having a rule or code for everything under the sun, but was hoping someone might be familiar enough with codes that they could tell me specifically where to look. Thanks for the search tip.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 05-14-2004 10:23

I have to say that RJohnson has a good point about the height of your ceilings. Our shop is old and has been added onto over the years and we have found that the overhead cranes running on an over the rail configuration lends to higher hook working heights. For instance, if you had something on the bed of a trailer and the trailer is over four feet above the shop floor, that takes 4 ft off of your working room right there, and if the peice on the trailer is 5ft tall, there goes 9 ft of working height. One side of our shop had under hung cranes and the ceiling is low....terrible for working structural steel and loading trailers. The rest of the shop has higher ceilings and works much better.

Also note that welding smoke will rise above the welder and higher ceilings will help dilute those fumes to acceptable levels along with some ventilation from a powered ridge vent.
John Wright

By bigdemps Date 05-14-2004 13:39

Thanks for your input and the valid points you made about working height. We are going to have 18' ceilings in our new shop so the height will be sufficient for our underslung crane and traveler beams, at least for the type of work we do. I think that, in addition to power ventillation in the roof, will take care of the problem of smoke/fume exhausting that we now have in our 12' tall shop.

This is my first time to ask a question at the AWS site and I am very happy with the responses to I have received to my posting. Thanks for your help.

By bigdemps Date 05-14-2004 13:43

Thanks for y'all's help with my shop size question. I used the info y'all gave me, along with some common sense arguments and was succesful in getting the powers that be to give me a larger shop space. I'll now be getting a 32'x62' shop with a separate, enclosed area for my paint storage. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. I get to be a windshield this time. ;)

Thanks again,
Dempsy

By pjseaman (**)

Date 05-15-2004 01:06

I have a book on ventilation and it took a while to find the answer I was looking for. Areas must be 10,000 cubic feet per person welding for natural ventilation and general room ventilation must be 2000 cubic feet or more per person welding. Also forced ventilation is required for welding metals containing zinc,lead,beryllium,cadmium,mercury, copper, austinetic magnesium. This I thought might be important in your situation.
Good luck,
Pjseaman