kuraki
Fimbulvetr Knifeworks
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2016
- Messages
- 4,679
This may be common sense, old hat, "yeah, duh" but I feel compelled to post about it because of how close I believe I came to being seriously injured or killed, and I'm not above using my own stupidity as an example if it helps others from making the same mistakes.
I've never spent much time in my workshop in the winter. For one, before I started making knives, most of my workshop related hobbies, I just did at work during the winter, because my out buildings are not sealed or insulated very well, and most of what I was doing required machining. So it was just easier to do at work during off hours.
Since going as close to "all in" on knifemaking as I'm going to this last spring however, that has changed, and since November I've been spending a significant amount of time in the workshop each and every night after my day job. Often from 7pm until midnight or 1 in the morning.
As the winter got colder, the small, 30,000 BTU propane torpedo heater I'd been using was no longer sufficient. Like I said, my shop is not sealed or insulated very well at all. There is a 4" gap between the bottom of my door and the footing, for example. If it's a windy day, I can often feel the breeze. I assumed I had sufficient air exchange to account for the carbon monoxide produced by a torpedo heater. I was probably right, for the 30,000 BTU unit.
But I replaced it with a 75,000 BTU heater, and I assumed wrong.
During these long, late nights, I never noticed the typical CO poisoning symptoms. I wasn't getting sleepy, or headaches, or tired or confused. And when I was done for the night, I'd come inside, shower and go straight to bed. But what I did notice is that it was becoming harder and harder to wake up in the morning. And when I finally did, I did have a headache, felt tired, foggy and confused. I chalked this up to late nights, lack of sleep, and the underlying possibility of sleep apnea/other sleep disorder.
It got to a point where my performance at work started to suffer and I nearly scheduled another sleep study to re-test for apnea (I was cleared of this a few years ago) before I had to travel for work and had a night off from working in the shop. No pounding headache or confusion that morning in the hotel. Lightbulb.
It's been two weeks since I stopped running that heater at night in the shop. We've had a bout of warmer weather, 30s, and I don't really need to run a heater at that temperature, and only now am I starting to feel normal again. The few times I've used the heater, I've left the door wide open, and I now have a CO detector in there with me.
So don't do this. I honestly believe that if I'd continued doing what I was doing, I might not have woken up one morning, because I was getting repeated exposure to levels of CO that in a single exposure, were not terribly serious, but repeated, daily exposure was becoming cumulative in it's effects.
If you heat your shop with an unvented heat source, get a CO detector.
I'm an idiot.
I've never spent much time in my workshop in the winter. For one, before I started making knives, most of my workshop related hobbies, I just did at work during the winter, because my out buildings are not sealed or insulated very well, and most of what I was doing required machining. So it was just easier to do at work during off hours.
Since going as close to "all in" on knifemaking as I'm going to this last spring however, that has changed, and since November I've been spending a significant amount of time in the workshop each and every night after my day job. Often from 7pm until midnight or 1 in the morning.
As the winter got colder, the small, 30,000 BTU propane torpedo heater I'd been using was no longer sufficient. Like I said, my shop is not sealed or insulated very well at all. There is a 4" gap between the bottom of my door and the footing, for example. If it's a windy day, I can often feel the breeze. I assumed I had sufficient air exchange to account for the carbon monoxide produced by a torpedo heater. I was probably right, for the 30,000 BTU unit.
But I replaced it with a 75,000 BTU heater, and I assumed wrong.
During these long, late nights, I never noticed the typical CO poisoning symptoms. I wasn't getting sleepy, or headaches, or tired or confused. And when I was done for the night, I'd come inside, shower and go straight to bed. But what I did notice is that it was becoming harder and harder to wake up in the morning. And when I finally did, I did have a headache, felt tired, foggy and confused. I chalked this up to late nights, lack of sleep, and the underlying possibility of sleep apnea/other sleep disorder.
It got to a point where my performance at work started to suffer and I nearly scheduled another sleep study to re-test for apnea (I was cleared of this a few years ago) before I had to travel for work and had a night off from working in the shop. No pounding headache or confusion that morning in the hotel. Lightbulb.
It's been two weeks since I stopped running that heater at night in the shop. We've had a bout of warmer weather, 30s, and I don't really need to run a heater at that temperature, and only now am I starting to feel normal again. The few times I've used the heater, I've left the door wide open, and I now have a CO detector in there with me.
So don't do this. I honestly believe that if I'd continued doing what I was doing, I might not have woken up one morning, because I was getting repeated exposure to levels of CO that in a single exposure, were not terribly serious, but repeated, daily exposure was becoming cumulative in it's effects.
If you heat your shop with an unvented heat source, get a CO detector.
I'm an idiot.
