Welding Tips and Tricks

I have an unheated, uninsulated section of my pole barn where I have my weld bench set up.

I need to get so heat put in and am considering an infra red either tube or plaque type heater. The distance to the roof trusses is 9.5 ft. I have heard that it gets kind of uncomfortable if the heat is directed toward where you are working.

So I'm thinking about hanging the heater so that it is 20 ft. away from my weld bench yet aimed toward it. This would maybe put more stuff in line with the infrared heat waves.

Any opinions/experience with the idea?

I have an IR type heater in my house, and the drawback is that they heat objects directly in the path of their "radiation pattern". You are correct that they can get too hot if you're in that path. Personally, I'd rather have a heater that heats the air and have warm air circulating about than the IR type.

It's probably survivable if you get it 20' away like you're talking, and maybe it'd help to set up a fan to blow across the path of the heat. I'm guessing on the fan, never tried it.

Of course, if it's really, really cold, you just might want to be in the direct path of that IR. There ain't no perfect plan.

Let us know what you end up with and how it turns out. I'm getting ready to build a shop soon and will be wanting heat in it.

Larry

ldbtx wrote:I have an IR type heater in my house, and the drawback is that they heat objects directly in the path of their "radiation pattern". You are correct that they can get too hot if you're in that path. Personally, I'd rather have a heater that heats the air and have warm air circulating about than the IR type.

It's probably survivable if you get it 20' away like you're talking, and maybe it'd help to set up a fan to blow across the path of the heat. I'm guessing on the fan, never tried it.

Of course, if it's really, really cold, you just might want to be in the direct path of that IR. There ain't no perfect plan.

Let us know what you end up with and how it turns out. I'm getting ready to build a shop soon and will be wanting heat in it.

Larry

With your new shop, if you can do in floor hot water heat. You'll never have warm feet without it and it does a nice job.

I'm pretty sure the minimum height for radiant tube heaters is 10 ft. Plus you need 18-24 inches of clearance on top of the unit. That's as long as you don't stack anything closer than 6 ft from the bottom of the heater. I've installed a lot of them.

I did talk to the manufacturer of one unit I am considering. You can install a heat barrier over the top of the heater and install it mush closer to the trusses. So this is what I plan on doing. There isn't any real good place to install a heater right now. Way too much business supplies and parts for projects.
The simple truth is that I need a much bigger pole barn. Having more space to work without bumping into stuff. If you find yourself walking sideways to get around, you have too much stuff. Maybe in a year or 2.

I know one thing for sure. Any new buildings will be insulated and designed to heat efficiently.

My brother-in-laws truck barn has in floor heat with a heated pit as well. It can be -20 outside and 80 degrees inside. Heated with an outdoor wood stove and a back-up oil burner. Very nice to work in.

this year when i moved the house i bought had a
small detached garage. i added electric , insulation,
sheetrock,etc and then installed one of the new inverter
heat pumps. very cheap to operate and also has A/C.
it worked so well i installed one in the attached 2 1/2
car garage.....
craig

With IR heating you can get quite geeky

Far infrared units can be very good for making a person feel warm(th), but their environment doesn't heat up much (if at all..)

Can be very useful in industrial settings to put an IR 'spotlight' on workers in a cold hall and make them feel nice and warm even though the rest of the facility is not heated (much).

Some info on the major types of IR you can use: https://www.herschel-infrared.com/how-i ... ed-heater/

Bye, Arno.

Me personally. I run my still in my shop when I want to work in the cold weather. I multi-task as should you.Weld a little, drink alittle...you all can see where this is going, right?

exnailpounder wrote:Me personally. I run my still in my shop when I want to work in the cold weather. I multi-task as should you.Weld a little, drink alittle...you all can see where this is going, right?

uh, more test coupons for the beer can challenge??

LtBadd wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:Me personally. I run my still in my shop when I want to work in the cold weather. I multi-task as should you.Weld a little, drink alittle...you all can see where this is going, right?

uh, more test coupons for the beer can challenge??

Friggin right...Uh where's yours by the way