Curtain divider?

[Dragster Racer]

Anyone use a curtain to divide thier shop? I have a 40X40 that will have the motorhome stored in part of it. I was thinking about using some sort of a roll up curtain to portion off that 15' or so and that door so that I don't directly heat it. If it hovered just over freezing, it would be great. I would think that would help my recovery in the used part and reduce or at least slow down overall heat loss.
Anyone do this?

 

[Cardboard Man]

This is a good idea. I do it when I paint, dividing one half of my shop from the other to reduce overspray and such. I have plastic sheeting that I attach to the wooden ceiling with batten boards, and I tape a piece of conduit to the bottom. I use 3 pieces of plastic so I can just roll it up in sections and tie it up. Quick, easy, and cheap. I would think you could use a thicker tarp type material for better heat retention, but the concept is the same.

 

[jwith68]

I have something similar. I have a 30' x 60' that is divided off at 2/5 - 3/5's (if that makes sense) - I have 24' x 30' of shop space and 36' x 30' of storage space (3 bays.) I have a solid divider wall from the back wall up to about the middle, then 11' of roll-up curtain, then another 42" or so of wall with a walk door in it. The whole building is insulated the same, R19 walls and R30 attic, but I wanted to have the shop space divided off most of the time for easier heating and cooling, and keeping messy jobs over there as much as possible. When needed, the curtain rolls up very easily.

I have a 75k Modine Hot Dawg that will keep the entire building toasty, but cooling the whole thing is a bit harder. This time of year, I keep the thermostat set on 50°F over on the shop side, and the garage side will get down into the lower 40's at times. The solid portions of the divider walls are insulated to R11, as is the bathroom and utility closet that extends from the divider wall into the rear of the third garage bay.

Here are a few pictures that should help explain. Sorry there seems to be a tractor in the way in the last one.

 

[Dragster Racer]

Good replys. jwith, what is the material you used for your curtain? What about the rolling mechanism?

 

[Torque1st]

There was a nice thread on this a while back.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24531

 

[nissan_crawler]

We used 1" metal conduit and tarps to do it in our shop. With the diesel heater, it brought it from -35* up to 0*. I'm sure you want something more permanent maybe, but it the conduit works well, as it goes together with screws.

 

[jwith68]

Good replys. jwith, what is the material you used for your curtain? What about the rolling mechanism?

The material is vinyl coated truck tarp cloth. I had it sewn up by a company in St. Louis, Zamzow Mfg. (http://www.zamzow-tarp.com/) They were happy to do a custom job like this (at least back in 2006 they were) and I think it cost about $140.

It has grommets every 16" or so along the top that bolt to a 2x4 that is lagged to the ceiling, there are 4 strips of velcro on each side, ~2" x 12", and a pocket sewn into the bottom edge. In the pocket is an 11' length of 3/4" galvanized pipe. This acts to weight the bottom edge, hold it rigid, and is the center on which it rolls up. The white ropes you can see in the picture are anchored at the top on the shop side, and run through pulleys at the top on the garage side. Pull the ropes, the curtain rolls up, and tie off the ropes on a cleat on the side (right beside the right rear tractor tire in picture #3.) I will say that if you want it to roll up really nicely, it helps to have 2 people, 1 to pull the ropes and another to get a nice tight roll started and up to about 5' high.

 

[kartracer23]

My grandfather had a 2 deep / 2 wide 4-car garage. The back half was used for working on stuff and he liked to keep it heated (as well as keep the daily drivers clean. He installed a metal track that accepted sliders (like some commercial curtains) on the ceiling and then used moving blankets (thick, big, heavy and cheap) with grommets onto the hooks. Easy to slide when you needed to and a good insulator for something semi-temporary.

 

[Dragster Racer]

All right. I think I have a couple ideas to make this happen now. Thanks guys!

 

[cobymedic]

I am brain farting right now, I want to put a curtain running down the middle of my garage to stop "some" of the sawdust when woodworking. I just cant think of how I would hook up ropes and pulleys to make the divider roll up.
I am not to worry about the roll being supper tight, just somethnig that looks decent when it is not inuse.

 

[jwith68]

I am brain farting right now, I want to put a curtain running down the middle of my garage to stop "some" of the sawdust when woodworking. I just cant think of how I would hook up ropes and pulleys to make the divider roll up.
I am not to worry about the roll being supper tight, just somethnig that looks decent when it is not inuse.

You might be able to see it if you look at my pics closely. I wish I had a better one of the garage side, that's where the pulleys are. The ropes run from an anchor point on the shop side, loop down under the bottom of the curtain, and vertically back up to a pulley anchored on the garage side, immediately opposite the solid anchor. This makes a long vertical loop, that gets shorter when you pull on the rope. You put the pulleys on the side you want it to roll up on, the garage side in my case, because the action of the rope moving up on that side helps the curtain roll up, not just bunch up.

 

[jhchoppers]

I just installed some Goff Curtain Walls. These are the real deal, chemical resistant to paint, and work great for protecting the Machine Shop when I do welding and grinding.

http://www.goffscurtainwalls.com/

I got mine from at Marathon Finishing (no association with), they had the best customer service and the best price, ask for Marie (tell her JH Choppers sent you).

http://www.marathonfinishing.com/

We needed 2 curves in the track, I found the best price at Drill Spot. The track is made by TMI, so you can get special parts just about anywhere.

http://www.drillspot.com/

I plan to do a full write up when its all done and tested...

Paint Booth (work in progress)

Thanks, I hope this helps you,
Joel