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| Studio Home | Days 1-3 | Days 4-6 | Days 7-9 | Days 10-13 | Days 14-15 | Days 16-20 | Days 21-25 | Days 26-30 |
Finished Studio | Days 35-36 | Days 31-34 | |
| Days 35-36: Propane & Ventilation. | |
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Ventilation is complete! Installing the range hood was more complicated than we thought since the drywall made things difficult. The screws for the hood were only about a 1/2" long, and didn't even penetrate the drywall to hit a stud. As such, we had to get some longer screws and washers to use instead. Unfortunately, the only screws I had were left over from the shed construction. They require special bits that are almost impossible to use in tight spaces. It took us forever to get the screws into the wall since the drill kept wallowing out the screw head, making it worthless. However after an hour or so, we were victorious! :) Once everything was installed, we turned on the fan and.....success! 200+ CFMs of power blowing air out the vent! I went outside to see how much air was coming out, and was quite impressed with the force! |
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Yay! It's time to start working on my gas line. In this picture, you can see a propane tank inside the box with the regulator, flashback arrestor and bulk hose (which connects to 1/2" iron pipe). Since the box is almost perfectly fitted for the propane box, I have to be creative on how to switch tanks from the box. All fittings are sealed with teflon paste except for two joints; the where the regulator meets the tank and where the brass fitting meets the 1/2" pipe inside the box. This will allow me to unhook the bulk hose from the tank and pipe, so I may remove or insert a tank. |
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Here you can see the gas line I created using 1/2" iron pipe that's been painted in black. These pipes are sealed with teflon paste and will carry the gas from the propane box and into the shed. I'll be testing all of the joints with soapy water to ensure there are no leaks. |
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This is where the gas comes into the shed. There is an emergency shutoff valve and several brass fittings that will allow me to connect to the torch's hose. It was a huge pain to find all of the fittings needed to go from a propane tank, to a 1/2" pipe and then to a 1/4" propane grade T hose with a "B" fitting. The problem with propane is that the gas fittings have opposite threads. As such, you must find fittings that will allow you to go from NPT (national pipe thread; righty tighty/lefty loosey) to LHT (left-handed thread). I'm just glad I finally found everything I needed, even though it's more fittings/joints that I'd like. Everything has been sealed with teflon paste, so once I've tested these joints, I'm good to go with the torch hook-ups! Almost done! :) |
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And there was fire! :) After spending some time teflon pasting all of the necessary joints, I turned on the tank and attempted to light the torch. Dan helped me test the joints to look for leaks, and we only had one! It was one of the joints I didn't want to seal since I'd be breaking it each time I change tanks. I decided to go ahead and seal the joint since I only change tanks every 6 months or so. We tested for leaks again, and were (thankfully) leak free! The only other hiccup we had was related to lighting the torch. We tried several times, and failed. It turned out that the 1/2" iron pipe needs some time to fill up in order to provide pressure to the torch. As such, I turned on the propane, waited about 30 seconds and lit the torch....successfully! This picture is of the very first flame in my new studio! |
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After successfully lighting the torch, I couldn't wait to drag out my oxygen concentrator and light the torch with both propane and oxygen. I brought out the oxycon and set it next to my table on a mat (to protect the tiles and oxycon since it vibrates a lot when it's on), let it warm up for a few minutes and lit the torch again. Yay! A neutral flame! I can officially torch in my shed now! :) |
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