Heated Garage Cabinet for Glue and Finishes

Рет қаралды 3,293

Күн бұрын

I made an insulated, heated cabinet in the garage to keep finishes, glue, paint, epoxy, batteries, etc. from freezing in Chicago's brutally cold winters. It works quite well and is pretty easy to build.
Heater used: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...

Пікірлер: 16

@skynethr-6919 5 ай бұрын

Nice job. Im located 40mins from Chicago and i must say trying to keep a shop up above freezing year round is quite expensive. Ill be making this similar cabinet for my shop. One thing to add would be some aluminum lining on the inside. Now that you've had some time using this smaller heater for your shop how much more has your electric bill gone up.

@HandlebarWorkshops 5 ай бұрын

That small heater is nothing compared to the big, 240V electric heater I have to keep the shop warm when I work in there. I did fully insulate the garage and I had insulated garage doors installed when we built the garage. It's probably better insulated than my 1960's house. While that big heater keeps the whole shop warm, it is expensive to run 24/7. That little heater is like having a light bulb on all the time. It's not free, but much cheaper than having to buy new glue and paint every year.

@terryharris3393 Жыл бұрын

Thermal cycles like those you would experience heating your shop only when in use will cause machine tools like a jointer and table saw to need repeated re-adjusting so if your work requires accuracy then you may want to consider heating your shop continually during the winter. I keep mine at about 50F when not in use and turn up the thermostat to 60F for normal work and 65F for glue up work. I use a $30 Walmart 1500W heater plugged into a thermostatically controlled outlet I got from Amazon. I also have a Bluetooth enabled thermometer with humidity readout so I can keep tabs on the shop temp.

@HandlebarWorkshops Жыл бұрын

A lot of my tools came from my grandfather who had a wood burning stove in his shop. He'd only fire it up when he was working in there. These tools are nearly 70 years old at this point and I rarely have to adjust anything. I've had to replace bearings, but everything else has been rock solid. Since I only have shop time on weekends and some evenings, it doesn't make financial sense to keep it warm or cool all of the time. My shop heater does have a thermostat on it, and I do use it occasionally when I'm finishing and I don't want the finish to freeze before it dries.

@terryharris3393 Жыл бұрын

@@HandlebarWorkshops ALL Metal expands and contracts with temperature and with the complex and numerous pieces of machines parts used to adjust and clamp and hold alignments of critical machine tool setups it is absurd to think that a 100F temperature change between summer highs and winter lows would not affect misalignment of some adjustments. In winter alone in your area there is easily 50F changes between days high and low temperatures. Check the parallelism of your table saws miter and fence to the blade as well as the snipe and taper of your jointer and tell me I’m wrong.

@HandlebarWorkshops Жыл бұрын

I completely agree temperature expands and contracts metal. But these are 70 year old tools. They do need to be adjusted and maintained periodically because things to start to wear. But from what I've read and heard from other woodworkers, no more or less than a 70 year old machine in a temp controlled shop. Besides, I'd rather spend some time, every so often, maintaining tools than spend the amount of money heating a space that I'm not in 90% of the time.

@shannonc.4257 9 ай бұрын

Found your page while looking for ideas to heat my project. Neat little heater but I would think a metal cabinet would be safer to heat, especially with flammables involved. I found a 1930's GE coil top fridge I'm converting ($35 nonworking), it is insulated & metal inside & out. I'm going to paint it, have a buddy do some pin stripes on it, if I get energetic maybe some gold leaf lettering. I do sign work & have a laser to keep above freezing so my shop is heated, I need a hot box for welding rods & such.

@HandlebarWorkshops 9 ай бұрын

Yeah, I was looking at metal cabinets, but they are rather expensive. And I had all of that aluminum just sitting around, so... However, an all steel, retro fridge with pinstriping would be awesome! But I've come to really love the pullout shelves. So easy to get what I need.

@Ninety2guits Жыл бұрын

Well done? Who wants well done meat Lol. Great project. I have the opposite problem, it gets too hot in my shop in the summer which is just as bad for glues and paints, guess I need a refrigerator.

@HandlebarWorkshops Жыл бұрын

I'm just outside of Chicago and it gets hot and humid about this time of year. There's nothing like spending an hour sanding something only to find that you've dripped sweat all over it and raised the grain in a bunch of places and you need to go back and sand it again. About 5 years ago, I found an old window AC at a garage sale for $30. Best $30 I ever spent! Last weekend, it was in the mid 90's with about 80% humidity. My shop was at 71 degrees with the humidity around 55%.

@normanpaterson 2 жыл бұрын

It turned out great. Gave me ideas. Also like the Ikea tip. Now you need to create an inventory computer program to tell you what's inside! The fast forward video reminded me of the old cartoons like kzfaq.info/get/bejne/isCFqpxit7qRaZ8.html

@HandlebarWorkshops 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Norm! I usually try to fast forward the basic building processes. As many times as I watch a video during editing, I think I'd go insane without it.

@emptypocketsracing2354 Жыл бұрын

Link for heater?