I found what I need, Welding Curtains!

[J. MacDonald]

I have been trying to find a solution that would allow me to seperate the grinding gear and it's grit from the rest of my shop and have been very frustrated. I have a postage stamped shop (12'x14') stuffed with lots of stuff (several grinders includiung a small surface grinder as well as a mill, lathe and lots of manual tools) and have been having a hard time trying to figure out an acceptable way to seperate the different areas of the shop. It's too small to make a seperate grinding room and when I first recognized the problem, I started thinking of shower curtains, but will be grinding some Ti and am afraid of being burned to death by flaming shower curtains ignited by tome errant ti dust/sparks. After talking to my Dad last night (smart guy) inquiring about the heavy strips used on the doors of commercial freezers (his area of expertise), he mentioned that I might look into welding curtains. I'd never heard of such a thing, but apparently there's semi transaparent fire resistant material available designed for use as welding curtains! It's made by a company named Wilson (http://www.wilsonindustries.com/) and maybe others. It's flexible, and fairly easy to hang and should serve my purpose perfectly. A 5'x8' panel is only $48.00 so it shouldn't cost much more than $250.00 to fix up my shop and contain most of my grinding dust! Eight foot will mostly go floor to ceiling in my shop and should cause most dust to stay in the grinding area (hopefully addressed by an exhaust fan an a soon to be added dust collector), but allow me to move in and out of that area relatively painlessly. As an aside, these curtains are designed to be somewhat transparent but to knock down the harmful light generated by some welding processes so as not to endanger people around the welding area that might not be wearing proper eye protection. I've got no welders yet so that part is of no benefit to me, but I thought I'd mention it in case it helps someone else. They also make these things for laser labs too!

I'm so excited!

 

[hammerface]

Hey Excitable Boy, did you ever get these and try them out? I'm looking at the same idea..... good/bad?

 

[J. MacDonald]

Yeah,

I got the material and hung it so ther's about a 1" gap at the bottom so they're not hanging up on my rubber floor mats. They do a great job of keeping most all teh grit and crap in the grinding area. I've got about 18" of overlap between panels to it seals pretty well but is easy to get in and out of the grinding area.