Is a 40 degree winter workshop too cold?

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kanihoncho

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I am anticipating any problems and would appreciate any advice. I am keeping my wood blanks in the house and plan to finish with Hut's Crystal Coat and Renaissance Wax (Re-NAY-sahnce as the Brits would say;). If so, I might have to buy a mini-lathe for a spare room in the house. Thanks.
 
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kanihoncho said:
I am anticipating any problems and would appreciate any advice. I am keeping my wood blanks in the house and plan to finish with Hut's Crystal Coat and Renaissance Wax (Re-NAY-sahnce as the Brits would say;). If so, I might have to buy a mini-lathe for a spare room in the house. Thanks.
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Is 40 degrees too cold? Well I don't know about it being too cold but today it's 24 degrees here with overnight lows in the teens and my shop isn't insulated so it was 35 degrees in the shop when I went out this morning.

I use a propane heater and have two ceiling mounted ceramic heaters that keep me nice and toasty. I leave everything in the shop and see no problems in doing so.

I would think adding some heat to a cold shop would be more practical than turning a spare room in the house into a shop. I shudder to think what my wife would do to me if she had to deal with the dust, let alone any fumes or noise!
 
That is about what I get my shop UP to lately with the space heater. I have worked in the shop during the winter for years without any problems. Most glues have a hard time curing in the cold, but that can be mitigated...I leave the glue in the house until I need it. If it is a small project, I glue it up in the house, but usually against SWMBO's wishes. :mad:
 
I'm fine personally with the temperature

I was just worried how materials would react and wanted some real world advice. I plan on keeping everything in the house until needed. Plus I was hoping that the fact that heat is generated from the turning/polishing would counteract the cold without ill effects.
 
I would be concerned with warm blanks going to the cold being turned. Remember materials will shrink and you're gonna drill and turn them so thin the shrinkage would cause cracking. Better to start cold as materials are at minimum already. Just my .02.
 
Texatdurango said:
Is 40 degrees too cold? Well I don't know about it being too cold but today it's 24 degrees here with overnight lows in the teens and my shop isn't insulated so it was 35 degrees in the shop when I went out this morning.

I use a propane heater and have two ceiling mounted ceramic heaters that keep me nice and toasty. I leave everything in the shop and see no problems in doing so.

I would think adding some heat to a cold shop would be more practical than turning a spare room in the house into a shop. I shudder to think what my wife would do to me if she had to deal with the dust, let alone any fumes or noise!
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George! Oh Dear! In my firsr ever marriage, I used to turn in the Kitchen, in the evenings - Now I know why she left me - all those years ago! dontheturner
 
You can turn and sand at 40 degrees, but don't expect your finishes to cooperate. You wouldn't be working naked in a 40 degree room, and neither will they. Finishes like 70 degrees.

Friction Polishes depend on heat, finger burning hot, to evaporate the solvent alcohol and bring the oil to the surface where it forms a glaze on the applicator. If you can do that at 40 degrees, you shouldn't have any problem with the HUT finish. If you can't, you will be back here asking why your finish is still sticky or doesn't have any gloss when it finial dried.

Finishes like CA glue cure by a chemical reaction that generates heat. When it is too cold, that heat is carried away too quickly, and it stays as a sticky mess.

Good luck.
 
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Yeah, my earlier response was in regard to general woodworking which is where most of my experience is. But as for pens, Russ is right on about CA finishes in the cold. I have done a couple, but they were very challenging and required careful use of accelerant. The last 20 or so pens have been acrylics...no issues with those.
 
If it is 40 right now, it will be in the 20's in there pretty soon! I am in Michigan and my shop is pretty big and super insulated. Because of this, my shop is still holding at 51 with no heat on overnight. As the ground freezes and creeps under the shop, the temps will start to fall. You should keep the temperature in the barn/shop, assuming it has a cement floor, so that they do not go below around 40 degrees. If you let the ground under the shop freeze and then you keep coming in the shop and heating it up, that's not good for the floor...the evidence is very clear if you look at the cracked concrete 2 foot out from my shop. That would be like a frost line right there, so when it snows, the snow melts all around my shop up to that point. I wouldn't want that effect to come closer or into my shop. Another thing too is when the temp really starts dipping down in the thirties you subject yourself to rust problems. The tools will draw some heat out of the ground and the cold air in the room will condensate on them. You should at least put a heater out there on low just to keep the temp close to 40 or above for tools sake. I have about $20,000 in tools and wouldn't sacrifice those to rust just to save heating money. That might sound like a lot of tools, but it's far from it. For that kind of money you are only talking about a half dozen pieces of equipment and tons of little tools like chisels, wrenches, screw drivers, cutter, drill bits..all that stuff will rust too and it's the little things that add up to far more money than one might realize.
To do regular woodworking, you can cut wood and sand wood at 40 degrees without issues. You just can't glue or finish it in the shop. Obviously, I recommend you come up with some heat.
 
I wouldnt recommend letting the silmar acrylic blanks get cold before turning. They tend to break away instead of ribbons if turned too cold. I can relate to the cold shop and have to keep no wood blanks in the house closet during the winter.
 
Remember too that plastic shrinks in the cold. So you might turn a plastic pen and assemble it just fine, but then after a few days in the house the pen might expand past the parts and could possibly separate from the tubes as well. This is why it's best to install a plastic or composite deck in the heat.
 
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