My Big White Box! - Indoor ventilation.

Here's a picture of the big white box that finally made a showing just before Christmas -



Now it may not look very pretty, but believe me it's a beautiful thing to behold!  It means I can now torch inside, in the warm, whenever I want, with no frozen feet or fingers!

Anyone who's looked into or is doing lampwork will come to understand that ventilation is one of the most important safety issues, it's critical to remove the bad air left from burning the gas and melting glass.  Just as critical as removing the bad air is bringing in fresh air - if no fresh air can enter the space your bad air is not going to leave!

My ventilation system is  what has become known as a 'Barley Box' - named after Michael Barley I believe, who creates beads and teaches his techniques.  It is essentially a box on legs, lined with sheet metal.  In the top is a hole and a fan and ductwork are attached to pull out the bad air.  In the rear of the box fresh air is sucked in through the black tube in the picture.  I have a wall switch that turns on the fan and a light inside the box.

The more I read on ventilation, the more complicated it seemed to become and depending on who or what you were reading specifications varied wildy.  The important thing is that your ventilation is strong enough to suck the bad air out of your torching area.  I chose a 'Barley Box' type set up because I'm working inside our house and believe that having sides and a back to the workspace really helps in focusing where the bad air is taken from, and hopefully with the the fresh air intake will minimize the amount of warm air being sucked from the house.  So far so good, a lighted incense stick shows smoke being sucked efficiently up and into the vent pipe.

My fresh air intake is attached outside to another run of ducting that takes it away from the exhausting bad air - not much point bringing air in if it's right next to the bad air going out!

Now to get things set up the way I'd like - I need to figure out exactly where my kiln is going and am planning on attaching my glass to the outside of the box so it's easy to see and close to hand.  My fire extinguisher needs to be mounted close by and another consideration is a carbon monoxide detector as a safety backup.

Sometimes it's really good when you can say - 'It Sucks!'