Anyone using a OxyCon in their Garage?

pokieokie · #1 2007-07-13, 1:21pm

I think I just erased my entire question when I came back to edit the post. Anyway, I was asking about using an oxycon in an un-airconditioned garage. I read some other threads and realized I could get my answers there. Thanks!

Pam in OKC

JavaGirlBT · #2 2007-07-13, 1:36pm

I do. I have been using an oxycon in the garage now for 4 years. It's not the ideal place to store it, but for me it's the only option. If you can somehow keep the oxycon in the house and run the hose through the wall to the torch, it would be better for it. If you can't do that, the thing is to avoid turning it on and off, because of the condensation that occurs inside the machine in humid conditions. So when you use it, just turn it on and leave it on during your whole session, don't turn it off when you take a break, for example.

Lisa · #3 2007-07-13, 1:48pm

Hi - Yes, I'm set up in my garage with an oxycon and a minor. My torch faces the big garage door, with my oxycon behind me in line with the back garage door.

For ventilation:
Window in laundry room open - on same wall as back door.
I have a shop fan, big and round, $50 at Costco, in front of my torch - up on a table directly in front of my torch.
I have a small fan set up in front of the oxycon pointed at my feet to help draw air, blowing over a huge ice pack. I tell myself it works. I can't point it any higher because it intereferes with the flame.

For cooling:
I soak 4 towel in the washing machine, don't wring them out, and drape them over a small stepladder next to me for evap cooling. They drain into a drip pan, and I just keep wetting them down throughout my session.

I wet down the concrete floor - evap cooling again!

I wear a cotton blouse - not knit, the kind you used to have to iron - and keep it drenched with water. I fill up those water bottles and can grab them and squirt them around my neck and let the water run down me. It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm able to work out in the garage in this heat and just keep downing the water too. With that much water intake, you have the bonus of having to run to the bathroom about every hour or so, which gives you a little mini break.

Good luck!

Diane (clarus) · #4 2007-07-13, 2:40pm

I have my studio with oxycon in my garage, no issues here.

Lisa - I like your idea of the fan blowing over wet towels for cooling. I may use that setup on a warm afternoon.

I do hope the description of your ventilation was just for cooling and not for ventilation of the fumes from the fuel and glass.

-Diane

pokieokie · #5 2007-07-13, 3:41pm

Thanks for all your input! The wet towel idea sounds like a good one. Our torching sessions don't last too long at one sitting. Both DH and I have back problems. If I sit too long, my legs don't work when I get up.

I have adequate ventilation. We went to Habitat for Humanity's renovation station and purchased a squirrel cage fan out of a commercial Jen-Air grill for $5. Also bought a gutted range hood for $7. We mounted the motor on the wall of the garage, ducted from top of range hood to the fan, then from the fan is a moveable duct that we put out the small garage door when we are torching. We do have to have a small fan on top of the range hood to cool the big motor when we torch in the summer.

I am really nervous about the change to the bigger torch. I am dying to get my raku to do something besides turn brown, well, actually it's already brown, but you get the picture. Also have never felt like I could afford the silver glass because I knew I would waste it trying to work it on a hothead. now before someone yells that they do it fine on a hothead, let me say that I was speaking personally and not generally.

Pam in OKC

Diane (clarus) · #6 2007-07-13, 4:22pm

Pam, what a great opportunity to get the items for your ventilation!

Making the jump to a better torch is a little bit of an adjustment, but it's so worth it. I started a year ago on a HH and upgraded at the beginning of this year. So much faster, so much more control, yet so QUIET! The combo of my oxycon and ventilation fan are nowhere near as loud as the HH. Plus the torch is almost silent.

-Diane

kentaymom · #7 2007-07-14, 5:43am

I also use a concentrator in my garage. I did have some problems last year in our "old" garage when it was very hot and humid. My concentrator pretty much stopped putting out oxy. I contacted Jack at Unlimited Oxygen and he very generously sent me a new one at no charge! Now that we have built our new garge and I have a nicer space, still no AC but much better insulation and ventilation, I have had no problems with the new unit. (I'll add that Jack thought that the problem was the humidity)

Tirian · #8 2007-07-20, 11:21pm

My concentrator is also in the garage and I've not had any problems -- except age.

My old 5 LPM concentrator decided that it had had it and as the oxygen was diminishing, I weighed the costs of a rebuild, etc. The glass gods must've been watching out for me, because I now have a brand new SeQual Integra 10 LPM concentrator at a price I couldn't believe. WOW!

I didn't realize how limiting the lower flow oxygen had been for me. I now have far more oxygen than I need, don't turn it all the way up so I can easily get a reducing flame -- a challenge before. The other thing was how much hotter my flame is -- geez, I felt like I had been on a HotHead with my old oxycon compared to my Minor with a new blast of oxygen -- I'm loving it!

We'll see as it gets hotter how the new one works out, but even the old one purred away just fine even in triple digit temps here in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

Jim