A warm shop

[Bart Leetch]

John I think the big difference is in the fact your friend had wood heat & not LP. Wood heat is dry compared to LP. Dad always heated his uninsulated shop with wood & waxed his surfaces to keep them slick & easier to work with. There was never a thought of waxing to keep rust away. He never had any rust & doesn't to this day. In the rainy North West, south west Washington state.

[Tyler Howell]

Woodies,
I am fortunate (or not) to have a shop in the basement at this time. A free standing Garage MaHall/shop is in my near future.
Is heating the shop only part time (especially in the frozen tundra) a major source of condensation??? I can see tools and lumber constantly riding a roller coaster of moisture.
Your experiences please
Tyler

[Ron McNeil]

Tom, I heat my shop with a propane gas heater. It's true when the heater heats up the shop it creates a lot of condensation. When I first started using the heater my table saw and bandsaw and jointer started getting surface rust. I cleaned evrerything up and purchased some HTC Machine Covers from Woodcraft. The covers come in Small to Jumbo and since I started putting paste wax on the tools surfaces and using the covers i have had no rust problems. The problem is the covers are not that cheap but they are very good covers. I leave each tool covered and only uncover when I need to use it. I do this all year round. The perfect solution would be to get the Sterling or Hot Dawg but if you cannot then the covers really do help keep the rtust away.