I have a homemade fume hood for spray painting and TIG work, with an
outdoor vent. Basically made with dryer vent parts through the foundation
wall.

Interesting. Any special precautions for the motor? When I can make
time, I like to draw (no fumes) and paint (lots of volatile stench).
Ott lights allow me to work at night, but ventilation is still a
problem. On my pre-drawing board is an idea for a cart with an easily
sealable pallete holder, room for a couple of palletes[*], and some type
of fume hood that ejects via a hose to a plastic panel placed in a
nearby window. I can see this thing in my living room; now I just have
to design and build it =:0

One concern I have is that I don't want sparking in a motor to cause a
fire (or worse) with all of the wonderful turpentine, varnish and oil fumes.
[*] these are fighting words in some circles, but only glass need apply,
and I find the easiest way to keep the mixing area from growing out of
control is to involve a separate pallete in the task.



We do have a slight problem with people picking up metal slivers in their
(bare) feet somewhere in the house. I do as best as I can to clean up
swarf
on the floor and brush off my shoes when I leave the shop. And,
sometimes the
kids visit me barefoot in the shop, and I warn them every time they are
risking a sliver or even a trip to the emergency room. Aluminum is no
problem, the thin slivers are weaker than skin, and crumple rather than
penetrate deeply into the foot. Steel slivers are an entirely different
matter,
they will plunge WAY deep into the toughest flesh on occasion.

My big concern with chips is picking them up in shoes and using them as
rasps to destroy wood floors that are everywhere in the house. I like
them, but would have used a lot more tile. Of course, steal would do a
lot of damage to tile too

I have finger matts around my milling machine, which is the primary
generator of "large" sharp chips. The theory is that the chips
typically fall into the cracks and my shoes never actually get a chance
to pick them up. _Seems_ to be working so far.


So, if you take some basic precautions with an astroturf-type welcome mat
to brush your feet off on, and generally clean up whenever you are done
making chips, it will NOT destroy your house. (Don't go and get $9000
worth of wall-to-wall Berber carpet, either.)

Seconded. I also have a more traditional matt that I cross before
entering the house, the idea being that if I do pick up a make shift
razor blade, I will hopefully feel it there before reaching the
expensive flooring.


The biggest complaint I get is SMELLS! Especially, I have to paint when
the rest of the family is away. If I absolutely have to paint something
while
they are there, I get a bunch of static, even with the fume hood.
Without that,
the fumes would drive me out, too, unless they made me PASS out. Hmm,
that reminds me - you really CAN'T TIG weld in a closed space. The Argon
will drive out all the oxygen after a while, and you'll slowly croak.

I might have been the first to mention the danger, and I will be the
first to admit it is unlikely to happen. However, there are people no
longer part of this world who got that way because of inert gas leaks.
It's certainly something to consider.

Bill