I'd wondered about a radiator coming from the house system but a) it would take time to warm up and b) (more significant) where would it be sited? There's no wall space!
Oh come on, Owain! You don't really expect the Fishers to have a microwave do you :-)))))
Mary
These things are no larger than a fan heater, Mary, and about a quarter of the price to run.
What about your air conditioner that works by leaving the fridge door open?
Yes, but what does it contain?
Oh, so it's fairly new. After ten or more years, when you've built up a comprehensive range of machinery, tools, materials and other necessaries you might remember this conversation :-)
You can't throw out things you use - I'm not talking about stuff saved 'against the day'. All that was skipped when the garage/workshop was built. I'm talking about welding equipment, a forge, a milling/lathe machine, a sander, a planer ... I could go on (I usually do!) but I shan't.
I doubt it, without rebuilding and we're too old for that.
When the temperature isn't as low as it has been today he's fine. I'm the one who's concerned. He's not miserable and he's well motivated. When he's not he comes inside - he doesn't HAVE to do what he does, when it stops being fun he stops.
As I do.
In fact in the past, when conditions have been bad, he's done things in the house. One Christmas day the dining room was converted to a welding shed, another Christmas a friend brought round a car engine and put it on the dining table for stripping. I learned to accept this sort of situation the first time he brought his motor bike through the front door and into the sitting room - it couldn't get round the corner into the dining room. That was more than thirty years ago. We'd always done push bike maintenance in the house when it was cold. We don't believe in suffering.
It's all part of Life's Rich Tapestry ...
He's tough. We don't have 18 degrees in the house.
LOL! I can't remember when we last had an anorak in the house and then it belonged to a teenage son. The youngest is now 36 ...
Thick woollies aren't necessary. But you need bare hands for the delicate work Spouse sometimes does and that's where the problem is. Metal especially but even wood can draw out the heat from fingers.
Quite.
Hmm. You're demonstrating again that you either have a large workshop or it hasn't yet been filled with the necessary equipment for the diverse jobs you do. The working space in Spouse's workshop/garage is very small so he stays in one place all the time..
I told him about Andy Dingley's suggestions, he's going to look into it.
Mary
Ours doesn't either. Our garage/workshop isn't damp.
Indeed - but only when there's room to install it.
Mary
I only said I'd wondered! It went no further :-)
Woodworking and other machinery, tools, materials etc.
Oh I have. The garage is about 20 years old so there had been plenty of time to accumulate useless junk. Much of this went into a skip.
Obviously not, and I have a number of large things of this ilk. I'm really talking about scraps of wood, stuff left over from projects, tins of paint and so on.
All you need to do is to create a stud frame inside the walls, fit insulation and attach ply to it. Very easy job.
That's fair enough if he's happy.
Indeed.
Exactly, and that's the point. I ordered a coverall for woodworking recently, the idea being that it stays in the workshop and dust isn't brought into the house. However, I tried it on and it was clear that it was going to be restrictive around the arms etc. so it went back.
It's fairly carefully planned to maximise the space, and almost everything, including a woodworking machine weighing a tonne is mobile to allow flexibility.
For that scenario it may well be workable, and better than what he has.
It was a joke Mary (the clue was in the exclamation mark)
I don't allow him to keep things like that!
I obviously haven't explained properly. It's impossible to get to the walls.
We are very happy, thank you :-)
Spouse's overalls allow for normal clothes underneath - and are washed twice a week.
You're lucky to have a big enough space to move plant about.
What he has now is nothing!
Mary
Doing things properly is seldom simple, Mary.
I'd invest in a small wood burning stove. With closed doors, to burn all the scrap in.
AND insulate the place.
Get hot water fan blown hot air curtain then.
Simply ideal fr this application. Fast to warm up as well. As used in shops. Blows hot air down to floor level.
I have to wonder about the potential merits of underfloor heating under duck-boards for the small area in which he works, in addition to the various described space heating. If your toes are warm, you're half way there.
Oh his toes are warm enough, he's not daft enough to wear sandals in this weather! It's his fingers, they lose heat to cold tools and materials. But for others it's a thought. I got him to put a radiator on the wall behind the kneehole of my desk so that when I was sitting still, here, I wouldn't be cold.
Even localised underfloor heating in the garage, though, would be as disruptive in our case as some other suggestions.
I was only making a passing comment, I didn't want to start a war :-)
I do believe, though, that being uncomfortable in a working situation leads to inefficiency. In our case it's soluble by simply leaving the garage for a while to warm through. For others that's not always possible and the most suitable heating should be considered. That will be different according to circumstances, there's no one-size-fits-all.
It's especialy useful to think about it if building/rebuilding a workshop, when insulation and heating systems can be installed reasonably easily and cheaply rather than leave it until it's too inconvenient.
Trouble is, we usually do this building when we're young and don't think we're ever going to fail :-)
Mary
What about fingerless gloves? Or take some cheap motorcyle gloves and chop the fingers off (hint - take hand out first)
Isn't he allowed to have a seat? Poor spouse! Also two pairs of summer socks are probably better than one pair of winter ones. Winter socks - who needs 'em!?!
Yes, putting a heater on and leaving the door open is a common mistake!
Indeede!
If he's working in one spot, buy him a nice chair or stool to sit on, put one of those 700w mini oil filled radiators under the bench, and section it off underneath eg with boxes either side to trap the warm air more. Let us know what he thinks of this anyway...
cheers, Pete.
He has some of those, he wears them on the scooter. I suspect he wouldn't be willing to cut them.
It's not a matter of being allowed to, he prefers not to. He has a neurological condition which, without going into unpleasant details, makes sitting uncomfortable.
He doesn't answer to that, he likes being Spouse and thinks he's well done to!
Who said anything about winter socks - whatever they are?
He's not daft enough to do that!
Come on! There's no room :-)
OK, but I can predict what he'll say.
I can always predict what he'll say, nothing if not unpredictable, my husband :-(
I suspect it goes with dangly bits ...
Mary
Sorry, I meant to add that your suggestions are all good in themselves, just inappropriate for Spouse.
Mary
He says it's a nice idea but he doesn't sit. Apart from any other consideration it's impossible for him to sit while doing the jobs he does. Moving from bandsaw to sander to polisher to vice to ... He only sits down to eat or ride the scooter or car and he does none of those in the workshop/garage.
He also says that he doesn't wear summer socks.
Whatever they are.
:-)
Mary
For keeping his hands warm at the machines, ceiling or wall mounted heat lamps in standard lamp holders, a halogen heater or a fan heater, aimed at where his hands are would do it.
Have a switch near the machine or a PIR so they come on automatically.
Worth a try with one or two to see how it goes, these are the sort of thing:
A local electrical factors may have them at a sensible price. Hard glass is only needed if the lamps could get splashed.
Maplins currently have a 700W halogen radiant heater for a tenner which would do a similar job:
Or fan heaters can be had on the high street starting at £8 to £10.
Also buy some well fitting cheap hide gloves and cut the fingers off, hands soon lose heat handling a cold vice or similar.
cheers, Pete.
"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:4195eda8$0 $2651$ snipped-for-privacy@master.news.zetnet.net:
Isn't that what a wifey is for?
Of course. And I like it :-)
But he doesn't like being interrupted ...
Mary
That's a neat idea - how does it compare with Andy Dingley's suggestion of a long infra-red - the white ceramic heating elements without the glow?
Is there something wrong with that link? I couldn't get it.
Yes, but finger tips are very important when doing fine work, he uses them all the time.
Mary
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