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Old 2014-08-18, 7:04am
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sparklyofyourveryown sparklyofyourveryown is offline
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Join Date: Jun 23, 2014
Location: Flemington, NJ
Posts: 10
Unhappy Ventilation - pretty please, help!

OK, here’s the thing.
I’ve spent literally two years trying to figure out how to ventilate for enameling and, more recently, lampworking, and am so confused and completely paralyzed that I have done NOTHING.
This is a serious safety issue, and to be honest, I don’t understand why, given the popularity of both mediums, there isn’t an off-the-shelf solution.
I’m not MacGuyver. I am not handy. Show me ductwork and in-line fans and talk to me about CFMs and I start getting freaked out. I want to be safe, but AACK!
My craft room has two windows. They’re on the same wall. I have cats, so I don’t want heavier gases and fumes slipping under the door to poison them. I can’t cut holes in the walls (it’s a townhome/condo thingie), and wouldn’t know the first thing about setting up a fume hood. I’m only planning on working with MAPP gas and a Hot Head, at least for a good while.
I am a babe in the woods. I am clueless. I know I NEED ventilation, but haven’t the least idea on how to start. And when I say that, understand that I have looked extensively online at lampworking forums (including this one) and discussions of barley boxes and fume hoods and big ventilation pipes that stick out of modified barn doors and what have you. All I’ve accomplished is confusing myself further. There are so many different people out there saying different things, and most of them seem to involve people with some kind of ventilation know-how; I have none of this. The class I took on torch-fired enameling was in a bead store with no ventilation, and the lampworking class was in a converted room in a house with lots of windows and an open door, but no real fume extraction or direct ventilation of the firing area to speak of, either. The enameling and ceramics I did as a kid at camp were in a converted shed, with no particular ventilation, either. Apparently, most of the instruction I have received over the course of my life has been done unsafely!
I just want something simple, that’s going to keep me safe, and won’t involve cutting holes in walls. Is that even possible…?
Any help or advice you’re able to offer would be greatly appreciated. I’m desperate to start working with glass and enamels, but until I’ve found a safe way to do it, I don’t see how.
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