Looks like my Craftsman table saw will have to spend the winter in my
12x12' garden shed. Gets pretty cold here, could dip to -30 C/-20 F.Could storing TS under these conditions have any negative effect? Is there a "winterizing" Procedure one should apply? Thx for your advice.
Clean it well and then coat with oil.
Mice might like to find a home in it.
Student wrote:
Apart from keeping rust at bay, if the saw is belt driven, you might want to pull the belt off.
If you cover it with something make sure it is a cloth that allows air through or you will trap condensation and have lots of fun come spring. Clean it, lube it liberally as per the maintenance instructions and lay down a couple of coats of wax or other rust inhibitor of your liking. A good spray of WD40 on the undercarriage parts will help keep those from rusting. All that trapped sawdust in the nooks and cranny's collects moisture - blow it out and spray with WD40.
Bob S.
WD 40 is not a rust inhibitor.
no, it's a "water displacer", hence the name...
My Griz 1022 contractor saw has lived in our unattached, mostly unheated garage in Wisconsin for about four years with no ill effects. Nothing special done to it. I use Johnson's wax on the table once or twice a year and it's got a linked belt which I don't take off.
I've got a 240V electric heater that makes the garage comfortable to about 25F and tolerable to about 10, but I turn it on when I'm going to use the shop and turn it off when I leave. The coldest I've ever used the saw was about 10 degrees. I didn't like it. :-)
In a garden shed, unused, what I would worry about most is moist conditions at the beginning and end of winter. The cold shouldn't hurt it at all. As has been said, probably won't be kind to the belt, but that's about it. I'd worry more about wet, foggy, drizzly springtime and try to keep that shed nice and tight.
And I agree that covering it with plastic would probably invite condensation, so I'd be careful what I used to cover it, if I covered it, which I don't think I would.
Shouldn't hurt anything really but the belt... One additional thing you could do is pull the motor off and store that inside somewhere.
It'd keep the dampness out of it.
You could spray it with something too. One place to look for spray on anti-rust items is marine shops. Just check to see how easy it is to remove before you hose it down...
My saws and tools sit in the unattached shop and garage all winter in PA and I haven't had any problems with them. I have a propane heater for the garage (torpedo style) and a small coal stove in the shop that I fire up if I'm planning on working on a project.
The only bad thing is that getting the air temp up doesn't do a thing for tools that are still at the outside temp of around 15 degrees... ;-)
Thanks everybody for your advice. My table saw is like this one:
I wouldn't do this if I was comfortable taking the belt off. Well taking it off is probably the easy part, what concerns me is puting it back on, proper tensioning and such. If someone explains to me how to do it right I'll probably do it and leave the TS in the shed.
Student wrote:
CW,
I did not say it was a rust inhibitor - read again. I did say it will help keep the undercarriage parts from rusting though since it displaces water and if moisture can't get to the metal - you shouldn't get any rust.
I just went through a flood here in July and had about 3 feet of water in the shop. First thing I did (after the water level went down) was to spray all of the metal on tools with WD40. No rust on the ones I did that too.
So whether you think it works or not - it does inhibit rust. So you've told us what you know about WD40, now how about giving the OP some advice?
Bob S.
Yo would have got exactly the same results with a bit of kerosine.
There should be no tensioning to the belt. Lift the motor and it will pivot so you can easily remove the belt. Then, you can remove the motor. Reverse the procedure to install it. The weight of the motor will tension the belt.
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