I really want to work in my shop

[Radio Ron w4ron]

I really hate this cold weather, I have an unheated shop in my detached garage. I've got several projects I want to work on but it's just too damn
cold in the shop to be able to get any work done.
I have a propane heater but it takes too long for it to warn up enought
to do any good.
I would give any thing to have a another garage attached to the house and heated so I could work out there any time I wanted.

Sorry, I just wanted to ***** a little bit.
It's likely two months before it gets warm enough to work out there.

I hope everyone I hope everyone is having a better day than I am

 

[Dberglind]

Google tells me outdoor temps near Charlotte, NC are 40's to 50 all week.

It has got to be warmer in your shop than outside. Unless your shop is huge I wouldn't think it would take much to push it to 60 degrees, and that is plenty warm to be out working in the shop to me?

I run a Bid Buddy heater in my garage here in Minnesota when it is 0 degrees outside, and it heats it up plenty for me to work out there.

C'mon man, get out there!

 

[Bib Overalls]

If it gets to cold in the winter it will get to hot in the summer. Couple of years ago I stopped fighting it and put in a heat pump and good insulation. Best thing I ever did.

 

[Stinger]

How big is your shop? I can maintain 50-65 degrees in mine all winter by running a little 1500w electric heater set to 60 deg all winter. Of course mine is fully insulated and only 24x30.

 

[HMCFab9]

No offense.... but.... quitcher whining!
We just got through the coldest stretch of weather I've ever seen.
Lows close to 20 below zero & 50 below windchill for about a week.
It was 20 degrees today...& that feels like paradise compared to what we had.
The only downside..... 12 inches of snow the other day.

I'd take your weather any day.

 

[HTGTS350]

I wish it was cold in my shop, on Monday when I came home from my real job it was 52 degrees Celsius in my shed even after 3 hours with all the doors open and the fans on high it was 39.

 

[Lippyp]

Mines just damp (and cold)

 

[owenst7]

40-50 is summer weather where I come from Lol. We would be working with our shirts off.

 

[3baygarage]

I feel your pain Ron. Can't wait for "garage season" to start up.

 

[softailgarage]

Not a fan of the cold myself, for the most part of the winter (except for this week) I bundle up with a t shirt, sweat shirt, then a heavy jacket and out to the garage I go. I cant stand sitting around watching TV, too many projects to do. It's an attached garage, but theres no heat going to it, hell, we keep the heat off in the house anyway. What about insulation? I insulated the garage door 2 weeks ago and just that brought the temp up 10-15 degrees.

 

[fomocoforrester]

My shop is too big to heat effectively - so I built a little room 10'X8'X7' in one corner.

I first take the chill off with a 2kw fan heater and the leave just 1kw running so I can work in the cold for a couple of hours then retreat into the room for a warm up and a cup of coffee.

Just the fact that warm space is there waiting makes the cold much easier to work with outside.

I also use it as a clean room and my machines are in there as well.

 

[nerraw117]

I live near charlotte. Where are you located? I am in concord. I run a kerosene torpedo heater and it heats my shop great.

 

[Hghgrad]

I don't even turn on the heat until it's in the single digits...and that's the small heater that basically is used to warm my hands every hour or so. We're in t shirts at 40 degrees

Honestly, if you can even hang a couple tarps or something to close off a smaller space around what you're working on...it'll help tremendously with a small heater.

Put some layers on and get out there. Once you get working you'll warm right up.

 

[Aberdale]

How big is your shop? I can maintain 50-65 degrees in mine all winter by running a little 1500w electric heater set to 60 deg all winter. Of course mine is fully insulated and only 24x30.

This. Choose your fuel of choice (electric, propane, kerosene, etc.), and get a small heater with a thermostat and let it run all the time. In Charlotte it shouldn't cost that much to keep it around 60-62 degrees all the time, as long as you don't have big gaping holes to the outside.

Here in north central Ohio I keep my shop at 65 degrees all winter and only costs about $100 per month.

'dale

 

[laser3kw]

Google tells me outdoor temps near Charlotte, NC are 40's to 50 all week.

you got to be sh1tt1ng me! THAT"S to cold to work in your garage?
I start taking off long sleeve shirts at 50º.

I have a propane heater but it takes too long for it to warn up enought

Then you have the wrong heater. Or "to long" is more than 30 minutes.
I have a forced air torpedo propane heater and I can kick the temp up 20º in an hour from 20º. I then switch to a "garbage can" propane heater and it will bring it up to 50º ~ 60º easy. That is in a 30 x 40 with 12' ceilings. I have spent 8 hours in a comfortable 60º garage while it was -10º. Best thing is you can shut it all off when you are done and not heat till your next adventure. 100# propane runs around $70 to fill and will have about 25 hours of burn time at 80000 BTU setting. I keep mine set at 40000 BTU.

 

[brycez28]

What I'd do for it to be in the 40s and 50s! I was out workingi n my garage this morning (didn't have the heat on) and it is 12 degrees out. I like wearing my coveralls when I go out ot the garage or work outside during the winter. They keep me warm, I can have a sweat shirt on when I go out then take it off when I get warmed up.

 

[kotlarbia]

It has got to be warmer in your shop than outside.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Same feeling of cabin fever here, but I couldn't resist anymore.
Last week it was about 17 outside, 25 in the garage.
A tiny electric heater running a few hours brought it up to 30 and gave me something to warm my hands by as I puttered around putting away tools and reorganizing a bit.

 

[Aberdale]

Why not just bundle up? At 50 degrees, the most you would likely need is a Tarheels sweatshirt over that T-shirt and shorts . . .

 

[bczygan]

21 degrees here Ron...I'll trade ya!

 

[Syberia]

What is this "cold" you speak of?



Been working outside (pouring cement and building a fence) almost every day this week. Getting a bit sore though, you guys who are tired of being stuck inside are welcome to help!

 

[Strouty]

When the OP stated it was cold, then I took a look at his location, I giggled. Ron, my heat is set to 45 and I only turn it up when I am doing some gloveless work. Even then I only run it at about 55. What I would do (after all the northern people tell you to stop crying about the temps) is partition off an area with plastic and then run your heater in that area. It is amazing what a difference a tarp or plastic will make on holding the heat in. Set up the heater an hour before you want to work. Also if you are still cold, get some long underwear and wool socks, then wear a couple layers on top. If you can keep the core warm, you should be able to keep warm, besides your body will get used to it after a little while anyways.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Your problem is your blood is too thin !

I was working on a buddies car the other day and the temp was around 30-35. It felt "nice" !

 

[63spyder]

My wood shop is colder than outside during the day ,not that the weather here is that cold.
But I have noticed in the winter ,I build a wood fire and in a couple of hours it starts to approach out side temps. I expect that all the old iron takes on the nights lows and takes awhile to come up to a warmer temp.
There are times when I will be working in the wood shop ,fire roaring and then I will walk outside and the day has warmed faster than my shop.
Would of been better to just open doors and windows. Lol

 

[NakeDiesel]

I love my new shop, the 4" of foam insulation has been well worth it. Mine is a 40x80x14 pole barn, I don't have any heat installed in it yet and right now just using two electric oil radiators to add some heat to the shop. When the temps were down to 0 degrees last week and the wind blowing snow like crazy, shop was still 40+ degrees inside.

I haven't had the shop dip down below 40 degrees all winter so far. And typically I'm able to keep it almost 50 degrees in there by just running the heaters when I'm out there in the evenings. I typically just wear a t shirt and a long sleeve carhart flannel lined shirt out there to work, and only have gloves on when welding or grinding. If you stay busy you don't notice the temperature. Sure beats the hell out of working in the garage in the boxes I was using last winter to work on my race truck. Laying on the cold ground and the wind whipping under the sides of it.

 

[Bull]

I live near charlotte. Where are you located? I am in concord. I run a kerosene torpedo heater and it heats my shop great.

I wish I had used one of these earlier. I just got my dad's old 1960s Knipco 75k BTU kero torpedo, now running diesel. It makes my 24x32 comfortable quickly. I picked it up and brought it to the second floor to get that area warm enough to use the exercise equipment and weights last night.

 

[aka Larry]

How big is your shop Ron? Before I built my new shop, I could heat my attached garage (20x20) with a propane-powered torpedo heater to 70F+ in less than 15 mins. I heat my new (un-insulated except the roof) 40'x40' shop with a double-barrel wood stove and it works great. Depending on the starting temp, it takes about an hour an a half to make it comfortable, but I can keep it above 60F no problem.

 

[Falcon67]

That's the real Q - how much area are you trying to heat, and with what. I upgraded to a 60K turbo from Lowes ($100). With that and the G73, I can get the whole 960 sq/ft here to shorts and T-shirt in 30 minutes. I still have the dual burner 25K Mr Heater but I wanted something a bit quicker with more output.

 

[Ohmthis]

When we built our house I put r 13 in the walls of the garage. One of the best things I did in there. When we had -4 outside it was a cool 35 inside with no heat. Fire up the kero heater and in 15-20 min it was a wow!!! 60 or so. If you hate the cold that bad save a few coins this winter and put some insulation it your shop. You will be glad you did.

 

[shooting4life]

What is this "cold" you speak of?



Been working outside (pouring cement and building a fence) almost every day this week. Getting a bit sore though, you guys who are tired of being stuck inside are welcome to help!

I was thinking the same thing, it has been about 70 degrees all week for me here in the bay area. Though it has gotten cold at night, around 40 degrees.

 

[Jagmandave]

I understand completely Ron......I have a hard time working in the shop when it's cold out too.....

But a couple of guys bring up some good points, could you insulate better? Do you have a way to power up the heat a little more by adding another - electric maybe - to help get it up to temp?

Around here we get about two weeks in the spring and 2 more in the fall where it's really pleasant and you can have the doors open while you work, the rest of the year it's either heat or cool to make it comfortable enough to work.

I added a window A/C-heater to mine and it's made a world of difference especially in the summer heat. It does OK in the winter, but I still need to replace/reseal my garage doors and man door, then I won't feel as bad about spending the money to heat/cool it.

 

[east_tn_emc]

I have a 125,000 BTU kerosene jet-heater I bought. It is easy on kerosene and can heat my 30x42x10 shop from 35F inside to 75F inside in about an hour. I just crank that heater up when I get ready to go out and work, and can work in a short-sleeve t-shirt and be quite comfortable.

How big is your propane heater and how well insulated is your garage/shop?

 

[driz]

Cold, you guys don't know the meaning of the word cold in NC. Up here it's nice until the mercury hits 32F and it stays that way nearly 4 months. Up here it's right out in the snow fumbling with gloves freezing on one side while the propane heater tries to set your back on fire. Heck my 40K portable radiant will warm my -10 garage up to 45 in 15 minutes or so. Just get ya a heater and pump some heat in there, better one that has variable settings so you can lower it later.

 

[Radio Ron w4ron]

you are right, we don't get cold compared to you guys up there in yankee land.
Since the aurtheries got so bad the cold bothers me more and more.
That's one reason I don't live up there, the other reason is that there are just
way too many yankees
It just doesn't work good to use the propane heater in my shop, the work area
is just too small and I don't want to turn the heater on and then leave while it
warms up.After our fire a few years ago I've gotten really gun shy (or fire shy).
For small stuff that's not too messy I can use you little shop that's just off my
display room, but the project I want to work on requires sanding spackling which
makes a lot of dust. If I had my down draft dust collector built it wouldn't be
much problem, that'll get built sometime soon, it's on the project list, which
gets longer almost everyday.

 

[gorilla]

My machine shop is about 400 sqft. I heat it with a 5,000 watt electric heater, it will raise the temperature from 40*f to 65*f in about 2 hours. local electrical rate is $.35 per kw hour so operating cost is about $1.80 per hour.

 

[owenst7]

you are right, we don't get cold compared to you guys up there in yankee land.
Since the aurtheries got so bad the cold bothers me more and more.
That's one reason I don't live up there, the other reason is that there are just
way too many yankees
It just doesn't work good to use the propane heater in my shop, the work area
is just too small and I don't want to turn the heater on and then leave while it
warms up.After our fire a few years ago I've gotten really gun shy (or fire shy).
For small stuff that's not too messy I can use you little shop that's just off my
display room, but the project I want to work on requires sanding spackling which
makes a lot of dust. If I had my down draft dust collector built it wouldn't be
much problem, that'll get built sometime soon, it's on the project list, which
gets longer almost everyday.

Alaska is not a "yankee" state

Costco sells an infrared electric heater that focuses heat very well. If you are working in a small area, it might be a good choice if you just point it at you.

 

[quick60]

Heres how the west coast handles cold.

 

[bazzateer]

I wish it was cold in my shop, on Monday when I came home from my real job it was 52 degrees Celsius in my shed

In case anyone was wondering, that equates to about 126 degrees F!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Heres how the west coast handles cold.

They handle the cold better than the rain.

 

[John in OH]

Dude .... please stop. You're breaking my heart!!

You're in NC which has TWICE as many sunny days as Ohio and you're bummed because it's 40-50 F??

High today at my farm in Ohio was 14F.