Moved workebench into new shop!

how green is the slab?

watch for rust on the iron....

Bridger - The slab was poured about 2 months ago and has a power trowelled surface, tho' no finish on it as yet. I have treated the tables of the saw and jointer with Boeshield and left a light coat on - the saw has been out there for about a week, with temps into the upper 20s at night, and I haven't seen any troubles. I was thinking about putting a heating pad on the tablesaw table, but don't know if that would invite trouble. Whatcha think?

John

just don't cover them with plastic sheeting...

I forget who suggested this to me, but I've been getting along great with the old cheap box fan trick. We're still in the middle of swing season, about the same time of year when I went out one day and found my brand new chisels had rusted overnight.

I've got everything covered with Johnson's paste wax, and I have a box fan on the LO setting, aimed so that it blows over my cast iron TS table and toward where all the rustables are arrayed on the workbench. So far, the only rust I've found was inside one of my hand planes, on the bottom side of the iron.

I've had this thing running for about two years now, I guess. I should probably swap it for another one just on general principles, but it really seems to be cheap, effective rust control for unheated, wildly varying spaces. It probably helps that my shop is so small though. 10x12. One little fan is enough to keep all the air inside moving around fast enough to discourage moisture from condensing out of the air.

John, I've got my shop in the garage, in Martinez, not far from the Sacramento River. We get lots of fog & dew, and we sit at the lower edge of a slope, so the ground really never dries out 10 months a year. The fan running in the corner of the shop seems to be doing the trick. The only rust on the Unisaw has been when some idiot, who shall remain unnamed, unloaded wet oak onto it last fall, and then left it there for several days. He won't do that again. The hand tools are just fine. The only rust on the planes is on the ones that came to me that way, and I haven't gotten to them yet.

Patriarch, wax on. wax off. rinse and repeat.