Winter Interruptis

Mark Williams said:
Not since my back surgery :)

I know it's hardly worth waiting on the wood stove , but a cup full of fuel oil on the wood gets mine putting out the heat pretty quick :D. It's nice to warm your hands. I've just been bundling up with layers of clothes and keeping my bald head covered well.

Have fun , it'll be to hot to work in few months.
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Ive done the kerosene on the wood trick and that works.

Know what, it helped just to spill my guts about being frustrated with the cold. I man'd up went out in the shop, fired up the propane space heater and pointed it at my bench about 3 feet away from my stool. Worked a couple hours on a 2 blade saddlehorn slipjoint I cut out a week ago.
 
bladsmth said:
Whimps....
This weekend the hottest it got was 40. This morning it was 14F in the shop ,and I was out there before going in to work.Forging is easier in the cold.
Stacy
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Oh crap! When I read "Whimps" I instinctively held up my hand and said "here". :D
 
David Wesner said:
.... Have you ever seen one of those old kerosene or fuel oil drip type stoves ??
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I haven't seen one. I did have a oil furnace in the house that I replaced 2 years ago with heat pump/electric heat. One of the best moves I ever made. I would hate to go back to relying on oil to heat anything due to the crazy market fluctuations. For now all I can do is buck up and be manly like Ray, BigJim, and Stacy. :eek: :grumpy: :D
 
I use a kerosene heaters in my shop but with it so cool outside I can not get my shop warm enough to work. I would like to have a gas heater installed, but I know some friends that say that it makes your gas bill eat a hole in your wallets. I reckon we will have to suffer here in Indiana Kerry.


Barkes :(
http://my.hsonline.net/wizard/knifeshop.htm
 
Excuse me - have any of you girlscouts seen the knifemakers forum?

Bah!

OK OK, I'll agree that below zero temps tend do to have a negative impact on productivity. But I find that as long as I can keep my fingers warm, I can still make stuff. A running forge, a small fire, or even a little space heater can take care of that part. The rest can be handled with an extra layer of clothing and a warm hat.

One word of warning though - please resist the temptation to run your forge with the doors closed! No matter how cold it may be, a lack of ventilation will cause you to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Which will most likely prevent you from finishing that knife you've been working on.
 
My shop is in the basement and it rarely gets below 50 down there even in the dead of winter due to the oil burner keeping the place a decent temp! If it was zero, i would be forging all winter to stay warm!
 
My shop is an unisulated garage with a 35,000 btu propane heater attached to a 100# tank. Temps have been minus 0 for highs with lows 14 to 16 below. Last weekend -10 daytime high I couldn't stand not working on a knife since 1st week of January. Fired up heater and it got all the way up to 5 degrees in shop. Worked on two new knives for about 1 1/2 hours before I totally screwed one up from shaking so much (should have quit at 1 hour while they were looking good) . I quess messing up a blade beyond fixing is worse than not being able to get into the shop after all. Will be doing some remodalling for sure this next year
 
We had such a nice winter going.
Not that cold, not much snow.

Then a few weeks ago it just got all cold in one night, and it's stayed cold every day.
 
you got that right thought we were going to skate through. we're getting early January weather now when we should be in upper teens and twenties
 
I use a space heater my wife got me for Christmas, about four shirts and a stocking cap. I can only manage about two hours before I decide I'm not getting much done because I can't quit thinking about how cold I am.
 
Okay, here's some Canuck advice. Up here in Calgary, if you need to work outside or in an uninsulated building, you close off a smaller work area with clear plastic vapor barrier or tarps. The idea is that you reduce heat loss from a portable heater by reducing the area you're trying to heat. The smaller the closed off area, the less air that needs to be kept warm. Your shop is 14x24, so you could close off an area directly around your grinders/workbench and leave your forge out in the cold. Your 14X24x10 garage is 3360 cubic ft of air space, a 8x8x8 enclosure is 512 cubic ft. That's over 6.5 times less air to heat up. I've been outside welding in these temp. setups every now and again, and it seems to work great. It could be -25C outside but with a propane heater in a 8x8 enclosure, you're warm and toasty. It's the cheap and dirty way, but it gets the job done. Just be sure not to gas yourself when using a propane heater ( a CO monitor could be a good idea).
 
I hear you on the cold. I've got an oil heater and it does good, but I've also got an uninsulated cinder block building to try and heat. Normaly 35-40 deg. doesn't stop me from working, but I just spent 5 weeks in 100+ deg. weather. First week or so I didn't do much more than sit by the fire!

Once I get my house built this spring and build my shop the sucker is getting fiberglass insulation and sheat rock, along with a charcoal wood stove. Till then I'm making do with a converted milk parlor.

One thing I haven't seen in years that worked pretty good, or seems like it did, was a propane powered infared heater. Used to use one camping when I was a kid. Might be worth checking into.
 
I live in Alabama, so freezing cold isn't a problem, but I have two of the small oil filled heaters that look like radiators in my shop. They're electric and will run you out of there if you turn them up to much. I bought them at Lowe's for about $45.00 each. Time to head to the shop. Later
 
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