Warm weather turning

[dhammis]

I have my "shop" setup out in my garage as I don't have a basement and I was curious what other people did in extreme warm weather areas. Even at night here in Texas it can be in the 90's and the garage, without any A/C, can get quite sweaty while I'm working. I can't help but suspect that it has an effect on the materials and glues as well.

So my question is how do you keep it at a reasonable temp? Do you bring in a portable A/C unit? A window unit? (for those with windows in their garages) or have you reducted your home to provide A/C from your central air?

 

[Mapster]

Florida garage. Easily mid 90's with 80-90% humidity. I have had no problems with any materials. I usually just work through it.

 

[renowb]

Florida garage. Easily mid 90's with 80-90% humidity. I have had no problems with any materials. I usually just work through it.

Same here. Houston is mighty hot. I just deal with it. I do have a couple of fans going. Can't afford the ac at this time.

 

[LarryDNJR]

Hot here in Columbus, OH right now. My dad on his shop setup a huge screen for the garage door for when it is up. Mainly to keep prying eyes out. Have a small fan clamped over the lathe, ceiling fan over the lathe/bench area and a huge easily 3 foot in diameter fan with a strong motor either for pulling the heat out or blowing cooler air in. Despite all that it still gets extremely warm in there. I'm going to start wearing sweatbands to keep my eyes from burning. Sometimes the shirt goes off just to make it that much cooler. Not real great when I have CA slinging off the lathe at me.

 

[mredburn]

Same here, I have a couple of fans to help move air. My shop is insulated though including the Garage door. I could open the doors between the shop and house except for the dust.

Edit in; I should mention I have seperate garage and shop areas attached to the house both fully insulated.

 

[aggromere]

i recently moved to florida from arizona. both are very hot, but florida also has very high humidity. I had trouble with my usual Ca/Blo finishing which was a tiny bit of Blo and medium CA. I started using more Blo with each coat of CA ans switched to thin CA and I think it actually makes a better finish and I have very few if any problems. It just takes longer.

 

[fastgast]

Hot here in the desert, really haven't had any problems with materials, got a portable swamp cooler and a big fan but that only good to about 100 degrees after that I'm on my own as the wife bails. Desert rat stylin and profileling with a/c. It's 109 today so it was time to retreat to the computer.

 

[KenBrasier]

Mostly I sweat...... I have a fan that takes the edge off. My garage is well insulated and if I leave the door closed it is pretty tolerable until about noon, then it gets like an oven. When I come across the right deal I'm going to put an AC unit in the wall.

 

[wizard]

I have a shop in my garage and live in Houston. I tried a portable A/C unit that vented through the wall and despite it running day and night it did not reduce the temperature more than a few degrees. I now have a through the wall air conditioning unit made by Freidrich and it keeps my garage at an even 72 degrees.

 

[desertrat]

Swamp cooler mounted on the roof and a good fan for me. Just checked the outside temp. and it reads 120 so it's in the house and in front of the computer for a couple of hours.

desertrat

 

[EBorraga]

Fastgas, is that a late model in your avatar. I actually have an AC unit in the shop keeps it about 80 when it's around 100 outside.

 

[scrollsawwoodart]

WARM but not as hot as some

We have been having a few warm days here in Ohio. My shop is built in the garage. I have a small shop in the garage about 20' by 14' cubby in the back of it. Right now I am averaging around 89 degrees constent with a humidity of 55%.

As so stated before the shirt comes off and I have cut off the sleeves of my work shirts and use them as sweat bands. I probably go through 4 or 5 while I am out there for 2 or 3 hrs. Good hint I place them in our big box freezer and get them good and cold before I put them on to give me a nice refreshing feel. The wife hates it:laugh:

I run 3 fans usually to keep the air circulating in the shop. The first box fan is hanging about 12 inches off the ceiling turned up side down with a filter on the back to catch most of the small dust that the shop vac can't. This fan blows at the ceiling and creates a good down draft of clean air. The second box fan is hanging above the door that leads outside to bring in fresh air. The third fan is a floor stand fan the usually I have blowing out to get all the CA, PR, stain and other fumes out.

Creates a nice amount of air movement in my tight shop. But I do live in ohio so I'll wait until tommarrow to see if I need my snow boots!:bulgy-eyes::laugh:

Jesse

 

[Old Lar]

I have to gloat a little - it is 96 degrees in SD not bad humidity today. I come home to a tuck under garage and room in my basement where it is about 70-75 degrees. Guess where I am spending my evenings? Sorry to brag, but it is nice.

 

[bbuis]

Put a fan in the door that is attached to the house .. will bring the cool air out. Put another fan between you and that one and have it on osculate .. will circulate air and still keep dust from getting in the house .. just an idea

 

[TellicoTurning]

my shop is a tin building under a huge oak tree that shades it from about 3:30 until sundown... meantime, the morning and noon-day sun shine directly on the front of it.... it's been in the high 80's and low to mid 90's here all of Jun and most of July.... reaches temps of 95 to 100 in the shop... I run two box fans on high and keep a towel handy to wipe the sweat out of my eyes....

 

[bitshird]

Our new shop has central Air, I'm probably doing it wrong, but I only run it during the day when I'm there, if I'm there, our temps have been mid to upper 90s for the past two months, In the morning when I get to the shop the inside temp is around 75 to 80, in about 10 minutes it's down to 75 and stays there all day, yesterday the heat index was 109 today it was 108. the shop was 73, but I had to turn the thermostat to 70 to keep it there. I wish my house would stay that cool.

 

[lwalden]

I picked up this unit at Home Depot last year when they were closing out the A/C units in the fall- They had it marked down to $529 and I had a 10% off any one item couponso was able to get it at a pretty good price.
http://www.coolrunninghs.com/lw1810hr.html
While I had to add a 220/240 circuit for it, this only added about $45 in materials costs. I have been extremely pleased with both the cooling and heating features, and that the thermostat is programmable (energy saver mode) to maintain a given tempature. I have it installed in a window about 8 feet from my primary turning station, so am able to immediately enjoy the cooling or heating function if I'm starting it up from scratch. Even with 100+ Texas weather, if I give it an hour and a half to run the whole shop (Garage, 24' X 28', insulated walls and insulated garage door) will be at a pleasant 70 degrees.

 

[dontheturner]

Hello You guys -I thought it was hot here in Thailand - till I just read all you guys experiences with the heat, and no Air Con! It is always 93 plus in my attached workshop, even with a marble floor, and only in my underwear! - but thai buildings, are all single wall thickness. tried two fans going, But, and here is my problem - collapsed in the heat, & ended in Hospital, getting stitches to a head wound ( floor was unforgiving) done without Anaesthetic - and was told, I have very low Heart beat - so sadly, as I am near 80, we are returning to the UK, in March of Next Year, and are busy selling off, most belongings. Shall do a little turning, using a very good friends' set up, rather than start again. The recent New Topic, re ebony - try doing some wood felled from a Coconut tree! then tell me if you made it! regards to all - dontheturner

 

[abaum]

You guys have it easy. It was 112 in my shop (garage) yesterday and 107 today. I've learned two things about life when it gets above 105:

1. I will lose about 5lbs (all water) in every 3hrs woodworking session.
2. Titebond II sets in about 90 seconds so move fast, very fast.

Adam

 

[phillywood]

OK, here it is, you guys will shoot me. Especially the ones who live close to me. I bought a house that used to be a model home and since it was the first one built, the garage was the sales office. therefore, I have a separate A/C unit for the garage and two windows if I need to have light. However, my planning wasn't right and over time my garage got cluttered. So, when and in a must hurry for the PITH 2010 I have to clean it out and set up the pen turning station. But, I have the advantage of having the A/C running in the shop If and ever I got my act together to get going with it. Now, I was thinking that for those guys who are willing to bring their own lathes we can get together at least 4 of us in the A/C and make some saw dust if we can send the wives to shopping so they would be happy. Now if You shoot me, I won't blame you, but, if you wanna help to set up the shop right then we can talk about joint fun of turning. The first option is my wife choice, since she had to put up with me for so long. 2nd one is mine to dream about. Just for a little while, since no more excuses after the back op.