Using welding curtains to box in a plasma table

[teemfan93]

Has anyone ever hung welding curtains from the ceiling on tracks to create an artificial wall while the table is cutting? My shop is pretty small and I am trying to find a way to contain the dust as best as I can.

 

[plastikdreams]

Has anyone ever hung welding curtains from the ceiling on tracks to create an artificial wall while the table is cutting? My shop is pretty small and I am trying to find a way to contain the dust as best as I can.

We have some hung at work for dust control and they are pretty effective. Color doesn't matter btw lol

 

[DDoug]

Smoke rises as it's coming off a hot plate.
Curtains have a gap at the top.
I would make something permanent up top (like a 2' high wall hanging down from the ceiling), put the curtain track up inside that for no gaps.

Exhaust fan inlet at the ceiling.

 

[Cole2534]

I bought a fan and some ducting to make my table a down draft style. That cut down on the smoke a lot

Programmed via Mazatrol

 

[dana gear]

I think you are going to be disappointed in just how well the curtains will work containing plasma dust/smoke. We had two water tables at one time, and they worked fair. All our tables are down draft now and what a difference that made. we installed 5 HP turbine fans and ducted out through the roof and into outdoor containment systems. cutting full sheets pretty much formed an air dam but when we cut smaller sheets, we simply cover the open part of the table with a collection of 18 ga strips. We can cut all day with almost zero smoke/dust in the shop. for a small one-man shop, box in the side walls of your table add a simple suction fan and some HVAC would work great and be pretty cheap. You would be amazed how well it works.

 

[Strostkovy]

We put two swamp coolers in the wall and installed the motors backwards, so it pulled dust through the wet membrane. Worked great.

 

[CarbideBob]

Curtains alone? Who is taking the dust and poop away.

 

[DMoneyAllstar]

With plasma cutting steel, the smoke (or steam if using water tray) also carries really small amounts of ferrous metal that will accumulate. Even with a 3000cfm wall fan and a 3" water tray, the dust accumulates in my plasma room of my shop. You can see where every single drywall screw is located on the walls because the particles accumulate there via magnetism. About the only thing you can do to guarantee removal is with a huge downdraft setup with plenty of CFM.

I use a weld curtain between my plasma and my shelf of boxes across the room simply to keep sparks out of there.

 

[Strostkovy]

Downdraft is not necessary. A regular sheet metal hood about 5' from the table top, overhanging each edge by 18" ducted to two wall mount swamp coolers with reversed motors was perfectly adequate for our water table. It made a huge difference.

 

[DDoug]

FWIW Jim Colt wrote about coming up with a new hybrid table design able to run both as a downdraft, and a water table.
Looking for tips on building hybrid water table / downdraft setup - PlasmaSpider.com