Soldering setup in tiny apartment?

[meladori]

Hello! I'm a longtime lurker here and I had a question about soldering setup. I live in a tiny apartment and I plan to solder over my stove (which has a fume hood). I have a gas stove however and plan to use a mini torch. My other option is setting up directly in front of an open window. Do you have any suggestions as to which location is better? Is it dangerous to solder over my stove? Thank you so much!

[Aurarius]

You want good ventilation when soldering, so near a window sounds better.

I can't see that it's particularly dangerous to solder over your stove if you go about things sensibly. While you're there, you could probably dispense with the soldering torch for some jobs and heat your pieces using the hob flame; never tried it myself, but it might work OK for certain jobs such as annealing.

[LydiaNiz]

I have a tiny soldering set up. A lazy Susan with a soldering board and small 'back wall' of solder bricks. I only use a teeny hand torch and a maxi flame, so it's all pretty compact and moveable. A window might mess with temperatures a bit. If I had to do it over a stove (dk you mean on a hob top?) I'd get some fire board or a larger solder sheet to use as a base under your bricks for stability.

[enigma]

I just have a solder board on my bench.....

[Dennis]

Lets get this into perspective. If you are an amateur using a mini torch for a few minutes at a time, then even the air in a large room will dissipate any toxic fumes sufficiently not to be a serious hazard.

My main concern is not to contaminate food and food preparation surfaces and that might be the clinching argument for not using your kitchen.

All you need is large metal roasting pan or a cheap basic barbecue to contain all your bricks and tools for soldering, protect your furniture from debris and act as a portable soldering hearth.

A tripod with a square of stainless steel gauze might be handy, to raise the work and for heating from below.

You will also need a means of heating pickle, a bowl for rinsing and a sheet of hard flooring, in case you drop a hot object. Dennis.

[enigma]

I think its fairly important to have non flammable flooring for when you drop things....

[Nick martin]

I agree with what others have said, and only thing that I'll add is that you should shy away from using any kind of gas cylinder if you're soldering in your apartment.

Cheers,

Nick

[Aurarius]

only thing that I'll add is that you should shy away from using any kind of gas cylinder if you're soldering in your apartment.

You should, though, if you're a sensible user of gas, mainly for insurance reasons. Hundreds of millions of households in China have large butane or propane cylinders in the kitchens of their apartments, which often also double up as their living space. Accidents do happen of course, but if it was as big a risk as it suits the purposes of insurance companies to make out that it is, the practice would be outlawed and a lot rarer than it is.

[meladori]

Thank you for your replies! I meant putting my soldering setup over my gas range (with the stove off). I have a metal cookie sheet with walls, on top of that an annealing pan filled with pumice that rotates, on top of that a compressed charcoal block. I plan to solder a ring and a bezel so nothing larger than 1" maybe at the most. I don't plan to have any large gas cylinders since I'm very wary of having them at home. Titanium soldering picks are on their way and I plan to get a third hand if necessary and a tripod. I'm using an old small crockpot for my pickle. I'll try it in front of the window maybe with a fan going first and see how that works out. If I start to solder anything bigger maybe 1" - 1 1/2" then I'll switch to a creme brulee torch. Those are the biggest torches I plan on using.

Do you recommend borax and denatured alcohol (might not be able to find this so will have to use vodka) for your firecoat if you're soldering at home? I read somewhere that it's dangerous to have this since it's extremely flammable but would a little bit in a very small bowl be dangerous? I plan on working primarily with silver.