I live in northern michigan where it gets a bit chilly at times. I have a bridgeport and a Clausing 6903 12x36 lathe out in an uninsulated garage.
Since I store a bunch of light stuff up in the trusses, there is no way I could ever insulate / drywall the whole garage along with just the cost of heating the whole garage, so I'm thinking what if I drywall the ceiling over the machining area, insulate the walls and ceiling in the area and put in some partitions that I remove during the warmer times and buy some sort of direct vented heating system that keep it warm that I could continue to play this winter.
Thoughts on wall construction, heat source, and basic layout are very welcome.
On the Bridgeport, 6' front to back, 15' to one side, 4' to the other . On the lathe 6' front to back and 6' to the left of the head stock, 1' to the right. The bridgeport long side space can overlap the lathe space as long as the lathe is far enough back so that long stock on the Bridgeport can clear the front of the lathe.
Wes..my shop is partially a 14x 60 aluminum roofed car port. Its only partially enclosed. So what I do, is hang canvas tarps on both ends of the working area and the sides, during the winter months and use a torpedo heater and a fan to circulate the heat
In your case...yes, Id think making a "room" and heating it would work fine. You could use tarps as well, and simply fold them up and tuck them away in the spring. I think though that Id double them up, walls and ceiling with some airspace between them...Michigan...
A caution on that torpedo heater . They produce massive quantities of moisture . I fired one up in my shed and was two days drying stuff out . A vented heater will not add moisture to your space , or CO either for that matter . My space is small enough (8X8X12) that a 1500 watt electric keeps it usable . Of course Memphis isn't Michigan ... The doubled tarps are a great idea though !
Can't you at least get "Off Road Diesel"? Same thing as heating oil / fuel oil, just regular #2 diesel minus the transportation fuel taxes and with added dye.
It's regular 18" OC or 24" OC trusses? I would put doubler 2X4's on the ceiling joist chord of the truss, and 1/2" Plywood "floor" for your storage. Then you have a 7" space to stuff with R-19 fiberglass insulation and face with drywall.
And make sure the plywood notches for the roof joists are tight to the edges, so you don't have mice getting under it. (DAMHIKT - I have to redo the Storeroom ceiling...)
(Our main garage ceiling only has 2X8's on 4' centers for tension members, I have to inter-set with extra joists at 16" OC before I can drywall the garage ceiling proper.
Use either a *vented* ceiling-mount Unit Heater (Modine "Hot Dawg" or eq.) or a *vented* wall furnace, or a *vented* radiant tube heater for a heat source. Note the word *vented*, that is the critical part. Leave the thermostat set low to keep the condensation down when you are not in there - 45-ish. For Michigan I'd do the ceiling and walls and doors, seal up the whole room so you can work in there in February. But put up curtains or temp walls to cut the heat loss for when it's storage.
Psst! Gunner, one of those pipe-style radiant heaters running the length of the carport would be a lot more efficient for a semi-open area. It heats the people and the cats, not the air. Put one for yourself on your Scrounging List.
And the flame is enclosed in the pipe and up near the ceiling, not down on the deck where the spilled Gasoline Fumes live...
Yabbut, Gunner's Carport "shop" has dirt floors and lots of free air exchange around the sides, so moisture buildup isn't a problem - he needs people comfort heat. But if you try running any unvented heater in a enclosed and tightly sealed room the moisture will quickly have every cold metal surface sweating.
Go get a barrel of Red Dyed Diesel - no sense paying Road Use Taxes on fuel that won't be used on the road...
Oh, and #2 Distillate Fuel Oil = #2 Diesel for all practical purposes. I know of bunches of "fuel oil" burners (both common flame-retention and steam-jet) happily running on Red #2 Diesel in Southern California.
Yea, What the devil is going on with the price of kerosene? It should be cheeper than diesel, no highway taxes and basically the same fraction. I was looking for some to use as a cutting fluid for aluminium and couldn't find it at the places I use to,Gas stations. The hardware store I was told sold it is out and it costs about $4 a gal when the have it. Diesel is still less than $3 even with all the Fed and State taxes. Guess I'll try it for cutting. ...lew...
It is available at a gas station 2 miles from me, it is not very uncommon. I will soon buy 5 more gallons. I use it for parst washing and fire starting.
I think Pete's required floor spacing is pretty big. I sure don't have that kind of space around any of my stuff. I have three lathes and a Bridgeport and a surface grinder plus lots of benches and tools in a 24 X 24. I have tool boxes etc on wheels that "crowd" the machines, but which I can easily roll out of the way when I need to use that space. But hey ........
Tell us a bit more about this garage. Concrete floor? How big is it? Rafter height? Is it totally detached, or is some part of it already protected by the house? What does it have for garage door(s), and for walk-in access? Windows?
I just have a small 15,000 BTU natural gas un-powered "wall furnace", set to 60 degrees, and it's real nice to work in. Ceiling fans running
24/7 help with a number of problems. I don't have it, but others swear by natural gas or propane radiant heat.
24' x 32' detached garage with two overhead doors. Bridgeport sitting is sitting with rear near centerline of garage near right overhead door. The lathe is on the other side atm so I can get at everything to recondition it.
My one entry door is generally blocked with something in the way.
My thoughts are to use the front right side of garage near overhead.
Is that a vented furnace? I've used torpedo and kerosene heaters but they dump at least a gallon of water for gallon of fuel or near that into atmosphere. Navy blimps burning diesel actually got heavier as fuel burned out. Just a bit of trivia. The collected the water vapor from exhaust and sent it to ballast tanks. Saved venting helium to adjust buoyancy.
Yes, it is a vented system, although that is just a 4" duct, and not anything special or powered. "Wall furnaces" are made to sit between studs 16"OC, and will adapt to either single room or two room heating. That just means that you can mount one on an outside wall, but more practical to mount it on an inside partition wall so that it is half & half in two rooms. Mine sits plump in the middle of the shop, with full clearance on front and one side, and about 12" on the back and 4" on the other side.
I just sold one that had a fan built in, and electronic ignition, so it required 110 VAC to operate, whereas the one I heat my shop with has no fan and requires no "power" at all. It uses what is called a milli-amp thermostat. Mind you, I mentioned before that I run 2 ceiling fans 24/7, and I have an 8" fan mounted about 7 feet off the floor that blows at the top of the heat-exchanger.
Well, if you actually live where snow flies in and stays for a while or longer, then if I were you I would "unblock" that small door. Opening and closing an overhead door is a huge time and money waster if it isn't necessary. My garage is attached such that the house forms two walls. The ceiling is dry-walled and has really deep insulation batts in place laid in above it. All the walls, even above the overhead doors, are insulated and dry-walled. One of my two walk-in doors is in one of those house walls, and the other is protected in a sort of alcove (outside). The two 4-section 10 W x 7H overhead doors have a 1" styrofoam inside covering from the factory, and I'm lucky that the house sits on my lot such that the prevailing wind hits the house walls. And once again, I'd like to mention what a great job those two ceiling fans do all year long at spreading the heat, and keeping air moving so there is no moisture and therefore no rust.
I'd suggest you completely cover and insulate both the garage doors, and if you don't want to vent, then use electric heat. But it won't be cheap. Not like it was 20 or 30 years ago. But it is easy to do, and pretty safe.
I can't say I recall your mention about
is all about, but I had a single garage (10 X 21??) before that had three walls formed by the house walls, and an 8' high drywalled ceiling. Only the garage door was "outside". On a nice day one fall, I opened the 1-piece overhead door fully, and ran a 2 X 4 from wall to wall at the ceiling and another one at the floor plumb with the first one, just 4" clear of the opened overhead door. I put in jacks (studs??) at the ends, and all this stuff was fastened with 3" (small) angle brackets and 2'1/2 inch wood screws to hold it all in place (you'll see why in a second). I added studs 16"OC between these top and bottom plates, applied luan plywood on one side and added insulation batts and then put luan ply on the other side too to sandwich the batts. The ply was 4X8 sheets, and I just put two sheets per side, starting at each wall. Then I cut the top and bottom plates at the in edges of the "walls". So now I've got these two "walls" up, each 4'W X 8H, and in-between them I framed in a door between the
4X8 sheets. I think it was a 30" door as I recall, and I filled abouve it and insulated. Voila!! A wall that I could remove (as I had to when I sold the house) by just removing the visible wood screws and kicking them over.
With just a 9" lathe and a small horizontal mill and a drill press, benches and tools, it was crowded but cozy.
24" OC W trusses. Oh, you want the lowest part of truss, that part that spans to top plates to be doubled. Then I put filler plywood across inside the webs to make a deck?
Mice are not cute little critters. They have ruined more than a few things in my garage at times.
I'm all over that vented part. We put a hot dawg heater in moms woodshead converted by 3 sliding doors, insulation and a bunch of skylights into her greenhouse. Being able to go out there in the winter is likely adding years to her life.
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