climates, it's really important to think about winterizing
our shops and the colder your climate gets,
the more you might have to do.
And even if you plan on continuing to
use your shop in the winter,
there are still things that you can do
that might make your life in the shop
a little bit simpler and a little bit
safer. Clean up the shop,
you filthy animal. Start by putting everything in
its home. Everything does have a home in
your shop, doesn't it? Reducing clutter makes it
easier to find things should you need them
in the middle of winter.
And more importantly, cluttered work surfaces,
make it hard to see if rust is
developing somewhere under cast iron.
You'll also want to vacuum every surface or
at least do a shop blowout. Dust is
hygroscopic, meaning that it attracts moisture
and it can hold that moisture as it
sits on top of your tools.
So it's best to remove
that dust before leaving the shop for extended
periods. Unprotected metal surfaces can rust.
So the amount of protection you need to
apply, it kind of depends on your climate
and how much you plan to use your
tools during the winter. In dry climates like
mine here in Denver, you could probably just
get away with some heavy coats of paste
wax or a product like glide coat. If
you want even more protection,
consider a layer of something like T-9
Boshield. This stuff is pretty effective.
It's waxy and sticky, but it does make
the surface unusable if you need something even
more protective for an extended offseason,
consider cosmoline. This is the crap
that comes on your cast iron surfaces
when you order a new tool.
You'll need a solvent to remove it,
so if you plan to use the tools
in the off season, this would not be
a good choice. After coating the metal,
it's always a good idea to then cover
the tool with some sort of a breathable
fabric. This can help prevent condensation while allowing
air to flow freely. They make breathable cover
specifically for this purpose, but they can be
expensive. Consider a lightweight drop cloth,
moving blankets or even a cheap bolt of
fabric from the fabric store.
Just remember, it works best if it's breathable.
Now, what happens if it's not breathable?
Well essentially it will trap in the moisture,
so if it's something like a plastic tarp,
the moisture can get trapped between the tool
and the tarp and just wind up settling
in on the metal surface,
causing a very rude awakening come spring.
Another thing I've heard from many people is
that this works a lot better if you
place a sheet good on the flat surface,
everything can still breathe, but it's not just
open air hitting the cast iron
and some folks have had luck using magnetic
sheets on top of cast iron.
The connection is essentially airtight
and keeps the moisture off the metal
and by the way, don't neglect your hand
tools. Give those a nice coat of wax
or a fresh oiling before storing them for
winter. Anything with a filter should be cleaned
and of course you don't want to leave
dust in your dustbins for the entire winter.
Remember I mentioned that dust is hygroscopic.
Well, you don't really want it to
attract excess moisture and turn into a dust
cake, which can be a lot harder to
clean come spring. Vacuum or completely replace the
filters in your air cleaners
and shop vacs. If you have a filter
stack, blow the dust off using compressed air.
Keep in mind you need to dial down
the pressure to no more than 90 PSI,
make sure you check with the
manufacturer on that, and keep the nozzle a
few inches away from the filter.
I also find it helpful to politely beat
the outside of the filter with something
that isn't likely to dent or damage the
filter itself. Once this is done,
you can empty the dust from below even
if this is a bit overkill prep wise,
you'll be thankful come spring when your shop
is 100% ready to go. Here in Denver,
it's not uncommon for us to have sporadic,
beautiful 70 degree days in the middle of
winter, for example, in spite of my garb,
it is like 70 degrees out today.
As tempting as it is to just throw
the doors and windows wide open on those
beautiful days. Consider the possibility of condensation not
only on the surface of your tools but
on the internal parts, cold metal plus warm
moist air equals water. So if mother nature
should bestow a beautiful warm day in the middle of winter,
don't necessarily throw the doors
and windows wide open, give it some time
to warm up with either a space heater
in the space, bring the temperature up just
a little bit or maybe just crack the
door and window. Get some cross ventilation
and slowly acclimate the interior to the exterior.
It'll probably save you a lot of headache.
An insulated shop is a happy shop
and no matter what time of year it
is, the better insulated your shop is,
the more stable the interior conditions will be
in the fewer temperature and humidity swings you'll
experience and if you happen to have heating
or air conditioning, you're going to find
that that space is a lot easier to
heat and cool and saves you some money.
Now if you put your shop into hibernation
mode during the winter, you're gonna find
that sealing and insulation will go a long
way to keeping that cold,
moist air from infiltrating your shop,
make sure your windows and doors have proper
weather stripping and don't forget to check your
door sweeps. A simple trick to find air
gaps is to wait until it's dark
and turn on the lights inside your shop.
If there are any gaps,
they should be pretty obvious from the outside,
You can see my garage door here needs
a little bit of work.
A real common issue with garage doors is
that they don't quite press up against the
seals. So one way you can combat this
is to use a product like the green
hinge system can't vouch for this product.
I've never used it, but I've heard good
things about it and it essentially keeps a
little bit of pressure on here so
that your door is always up against those
seals. Another thing about the garage door? Insulation
counts. If you don't want to upgrade to
an actual insulated door, you can use an
insulation kit to add just a little bit
of extra R value there,
which I think can make a big difference
depending on the layout of your shop,
how the sun hits it.
All that good stuff. So insulation,
always good. Protect your liquids.
Remember if you're cold, they're cold.
I don't know if you're like me,
but I've got a bunch of different glues,
a lot of different finishes
and I don't want to worry about each
individual one and what it can tolerate in
terms of cold and heat.
So if I suspect there's going to be
a problem, I'm going to treat them all
the same, throw them all into a box
and get them out of
that cold environment. So my rule of thumb
is if the temp is approaching let's say
45 F or below, I'm inclined to bring
the stuff inside. Doesn't need to be anything
fancy. Just get a box,
put the cans and bottles in there
and bring them into the house into a
closet, laundry room, mud room,
finished basement or some other climate controlled utility
space. The extra bonus is that your significant other
will absolutely love you for it.
[Nicole] What the f$%*???
[Marc] Now. While most power tools seem to work
okay in cold temperatures, something like a compressor,
you have to think about a little bit
more. As you approach temperatures 40 F
and below you may find out
that the oil doesn't really want to cooperate
and do its job. So some companies will
actually recommend that you switch to a different
type of oil for cold weather.
But an even more critical issue with compressors.
Even oil free compressors is condensation.
The condensation that builds up inside a compressor
can freeze wreaking all kinds of havoc.
So it's important to make sure
that your compressor is fully drained at the
start of winter and then periodically drained with
use. Now while your cordless power tools should
run just fine in cold temperatures charging the
batteries and storing the batteries
in freezing temperatures can be problematic.
So pay close attention to the manufacturer's recommendations
with regard to storage and charging speaking,
generally charging under 40 F Could be problematic
and that could result in permanent negative impact
on the battery life. If your batteries get
real cold, try to warm them up to
at least 60° before charging. Now for some
quick tips. Be careful of certain types of
heaters, the propane powered construction heaters
that you see on the market well,
those will heat up the space,
but they also raise the humidity pretty dramatically.
So you need really good ventilation.
If you're going to use those when it
comes to heaters, make sure you do your
research before you put those into your shop.
Some plastics can get very brittle in winter.
So if you're moving around in your shop
or working in your shop
and it's super cold, just be aware of
that. Because if you have something with plastic
parts on it that you happen to drop
on the floor, it may wind up cracking
in winter, whereas in summer it may not
have responded that way. Now something people rarely
think about in the shop during the winter
are the inherent safety risks
that come along with it.
Cold hands just don't work as well as
warm ones. The cold decreases your grip,
your grip strength and your reaction time
and because it's cold, you'll likely be wearing
extra layers and baggier clothes
and you might even be tempted to wear
gloves. We always say the gloves are a
bad idea in the shop,
but in winter you really have to pick
your poison cold, clumsy bare hands versus warm
bulkier hands with gloves.
Now, I don't have a definitive answer there,
but I think for myself,
if I had to work in winter,
I think nimble hands that can control things
even if they have gloves on them.
I think that's safer than having your hands
be very cold and unable to grip the
work or the tool that you're holding. In
addition, keep in mind that when you are
out in the shop in the middle of
winter, you're probably going to be rushing.
Even if you don't realize it. Ideally,
most of us want to get out of
a cold environment and into a warm environment
as soon as possible. So just be aware
that you should try to slow down,
get what you need to get done,
do it safely and then get your butt
to the couch. If you have a toolbox
or a tool cabinet, you might consider buying
a few bags of that desiccant material that's
often shipped with products that will help pull
the moisture out of the air,
Keep that closed environment nice
and low humidity and this way you don't
have any rust issues when you open it
back up next spring. Now,
if you do have the means to run
a heater in your shop,
it's not a bad idea to consider running
it pretty much at the lowest setting maybe
45 degrees, if it has a thermostat. Set
it so that if the temperature dips down
really low, it just kicks on for a
little bit to keep the temperature from hitting
absolute freezing temperatures. That will go a long
way in making sure that your shop is
number one, still usable in winter,
it doesn't take too long to get up
to a comfortable working temperature,
but it also helps keep the conditions inside
the shop a little bit more constant over
the course of the year,
decreasing chances of condensation. And I think again,
once you get there in the spring,
you'll be happier with what you see in
your shop. That is if you don't mind
spending the extra money that it takes to
do that. Right? So I hope this helps
you guys out and gets you prepared for
winterizing your shops. Now keep in mind,
although I live in a fairly cold climate
now in Denver, it's actually very dry here
and prior to that I was in Arizona
where it never got cold but was also
extremely dry. So the conditions I have to
deal with are pretty minimal compared to other
people. So take my advice with a little
bit of a grain of salt.
And if you have some more specific advice
and better tips, use the comment section,
let everybody know about it.
It's always cool to crowdsource this kind of
information and I'd also like to thank our
guild members who gave me some ideas with
a brainstorm on topics for this video as
well as our editor Todd,
who did the initial research.
Thanks for watching. Please subscribe.
We'll see you next time.
Don't let a giant.