Need advice about venting...

[squid]

I torch in a two car very high ceilinged garage, so I figured I didn't really need to address getting a vent until I was in a more enclosed space. The other night, I used some silver foil and discovered afterwards that I had the smell of something like chlorine bleach in my nose and could NOT get rid of it. Is that silver I was smelling? If so, I need to seriously reevaluate my lack of ventilation of my use of silver - one or the other.

Any advice appreciated.

Sigrid

[Dale M.]

I torch in a two car very high ceilinged garage, so I figured I didn't really need to address getting a vent until I was in a more enclosed space. The other night, I used some silver foil and discovered afterwards that I had the smell of something like chlorine bleach in my nose and could NOT get rid of it. Is that silver I was smelling? If so, I need to seriously reevaluate my lack of ventilation of my use of silver - one or the other.

Any advice appreciated.

Sigrid

The chlorine bleach smell in Nitrogen oxide.....NOT good...... You really need to consider a real ventilation system. Just because its a garage is not reason to think you dont need a dedicated ventilation system.... Its your health that is at risk here.....

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/MHMI/mmg175.html

You need same ventilation as any other studio..... Plenty has been written about it, all you have to is read up on subject, then put something together.

Dale

[squid]

I noticed that smell again tonight - and was not using silver, so I had deduced that wasn;t the cause. I am also firing my big kiln and using thinfire fiber paper - do you have any idea if that could be the cause of the fumes? I am not torching but for a couple of hours at a time.

Just so we're clear, I am not arguing that I need proper ventilation, just wondering what the source of the smell is :)

I am going to work on getting something knocked together very soon!

[MikeAurelius]

Any time you have a torch and use it to melt glass, you get NOX. It doesn't matter how long you operate the torch, you still need to have ventilation. Over exposure to NOX can lead to eye, nose and lung irritation.

Your kiln is not the cause, it is the torch.

[Dale M.]

Just so we're clear, I am not arguing that I need proper ventilation, just wondering what the source of the smell is :)

I

THE source of the smell is the nitrogen in the atmosphere ( atmosphere is about 80% nitrogen) going through torch plumb (combustion process) and going through initial chemical change and producing first components in creating nitric acids... All it need is moisture (body fluids) to produce a real working acid... IT is a respiratory system irritant...

ONLY Fresh air in large volumes moving through studio is fix for this problem.

Dale

[squid]

Thanks for the feedback. Until this last week, I had been able to torch with the garage door open and thus had plenty of fresh air.