Keeping a lathe and mill warm over winter?

Hmmm. Plastic would act as a water barrier and probably make it worse. What about an electric blanket??

Bill

Farm store - heater that screws into light socket (but unlike a light bulb, does not burn out, or visibly glow).

Farm store - poultry waterer heater (heater that sits under poultry waterer to keep it from freezing).

Pet store - "hot rock" for reptiles.

Household/closet store - "closet heater rod" - low temp heater to keep the closet from getting mouldy.

And finally, the best suggestion of all (expensive, though):

Rip out the slab, put in insulation, put in radiant tubing, pour a new slab, insulate the rest of the shop, run the radiant heat in the floor to keep the machines warm, and crank it up half a day before you go to use them, rather than letting them sit idle all winter...

Old blankets or sleeping bags work well for extra insulation. Perhaps not the most attractive, but if you're not in the cold shop working it shouldn't matter.

Pete C.

Free isn't necessary. Safe and effective are my priorities.

Quartz-halogen lamps might fix the major problem I have, which is the burnt-out bulb. It still has the "visible from outside" issue.

Thanks! Pete

This sounds like a winner.

I'm going in that direction; hopefully will get it done next summer. I've rebuilt my garage over the last 3 summers and the final parts of the project are a new floor and door.

Thanks!! Pete

| I would really like to find a small, safe heating element that would | make perhaps abou 30 watts or so. I need two, one to keep the poultry | waterer from freezing, and I would put another into my welding | machine. I will check out cabelas.

Something like these?

See if your local farmer's co-op has them. These things are so much better than what was out there for poultry twenty years ago, and are a whole lot nicer. I've never bought one, so I can't vouch for them, though.

Well, I would be afraid to put that into my chicken coop. Too much power (I saw numbers above 200 watts). There is too much dust there, etc. Even for lighting, I use a 11 watt compact fluorescent.

Also, to run a 200 watt heater, I need to spend about 57 cents per day, which is kind of expensive.

For keeping water from freezing, I need perhaps 30-50 watts of power at most.

I will try to accomplish that with power resistors warming up a base on which the waterer stands, keeping safety issues in mind. 30-60 watts ought to be plenty. Without drafts, my chickens do not mind cold temperature, as such, they are a hardy breed. But I need to keep water from freezing.

i

Paste wax works good on woodworking tools.

Wes S

why not just use 220V lamps - they will put out a dull yellow light and will last virtually forever (the ratio of life/rated life of a lamp is proportional to the 13th power of the voltage ratio, so cut the volts in half and your bulb will outlast you by a long shot)

Bill

to contact me, do not reply to this message, instead correct this address and use it

will iam_ b_ No ble at msn daught com

Industrial switchboards in humid countries often have small strip heaters that keep the switchboard warmer than the wet bulb temperature so that no condensation will form in them . These are flat strips with tabs on them so they can be screwed to the inside of the cabinet. If I remember correctly, they were about 35 watts, so a couple of them attached in strategic places might do the job nicely. Try an industrial electrical supply for them

Tom

"Pete Bergstrom" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

How about salvaging the hotplate from a bunch of Goodwill coffee makers? Their only job is to keep the pot hot.

technomaNge

Ignoramus19006 wrote in news:TL% jf.9671$ snipped-for-privacy@fe23.usenetserver.com:

Ig,

Cabelas is going to build a huge store in Hoffman Estates soon. If you've never been to one, trust me you'll like it. So will your kids.

I'm pretty sure it's a done deal.

There is so much construction in Prairie Stone right now it's hard to keep track of it all. At least I'll have a good parking spot for events at the new Sears Center Arena.

That's fantastic! I will keep an eye on the news. Thanks a lot for this information.

i

Hum -

I have two calrod - they are electric stove top elements - Home Depo etc sells them as replacements...

They are 220v for the red hot times - electronic control drives them normally.

If you have several heaters ... - put them in series and put 120 - they are insulated (except for the screw on terminals) -

I plan on making a heat tank for welding rods with them myself. They are Freebies to me.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Ignoramus19006 wrote:

Freebies to me.

That's a very clever idea for a heat tank. For the purposes of warming a chick waterer underneath, I will use these 500 ohm resistors:

I may use either just one, or possibly three parallel pairs of 2 in series in every pair, like this

+--R---R--+

---|--R---R--|--- +--R---R--+ R = 500 Ohm

That should give me about 45 watts of very safe heat. I have aluminum plates that I would mount these resistors to. Should be an easy project. My pet bowl stopped working. This would be more practical anyway. I will use the armored cable for the pet bowl in this project.

i

Ax Man in Fridley, maybe in St. Paul as well, usually has some heaters for under 2 bux. They look like fiberglass rope maybe 18" long, talking from memory here. I think they're about 50 watts running on 110 volt house current.

If you want radiant heat, use 300-watt quartz-halogen tubes (very cheap at Menards) cranked way down to dim orange with an ordinary lamp dimmer. They'll run about forever that way.

Piano dehumidifier. The gun safe warmers are probably the same thing though. Karl

Waterbed heaters might work or a heating pad. You can get these at thrift shops for next to free.