This Is About Chainsaws, I Promise

[Moss Man]

I bought a Mr. Heater 80,000 BTU Propane Heater off Amazon for $99. with free two day shipping. The reviews are great for the most part, I should have it friday. I COULD NOT get one locally, everyone was sold out. This one;

 

[Cantdog]

Two things to be aware of Moss is, if your building is tight, these type of propane heaters put a tremendous amount of moisture into the air. The more you burn the higher the humidity and my experience in our corner of the country you will burn a rather large amount of propane. A 20lb tank will not last very long. If you find it quite expensive you should talk to your propane guy and explain that you are HEATING with it and you can probably get a better rate as the rates for propane sales vary enormously with volume and use. This is the only energy I've ever seen with such a huge spread. Just some thoughts from someone who has used propane to heat my water, generate my electricty and keep my beer and grub cold/frozen for an eleven yr stretch.......Good luck old boy and stay warm...!!!

 

[betterbuilt]

I get about two days from a 20# tank at mid heat. My down stairs get pretty hot and the up stairs warms up pretty good. Just get that wood stove in when you can. I keep a space clear of combustibles where I run the heater. Stay warm and stay safe.

 

[hamish]

Well being Canadian I am somewhat used to working in the cold, when I put another log on the fire my Igloo melts! I see people all the time trying to heat a 800 sq ft shop to work on something smaller than a box of beer.
Seriously, if you are only working on saws you do not require a large heated area, Get a few 2x2 and some plastic or tarps and make yourself a mini-shop within the shop that you can keep comfortable. Propane unless vented is not a good idea regardless if its convection, radiant etc.... you wont know when the co2 gets to you. IT sok to use it to pre-heat but not very safe afterwards unless vented (or you provide enough of a fresh air intake....but we all hate those drafts). A little 1500Watt electric heater is more than enough to keep a mini-shop within a shop comfortable to work in (up here the are $30 so in the US most likely $2). For the floor grab some free pallets and make yourself and evelated floor and slap some cardboard on it, gets you up off the cold cement and a lil bit of insulation, best part its free, oh yeat grab a few extra paletts to fill in the gaps in the ones you are using).

Sorel got bought by Columbia Sportswear, only a few of the real winter boots remain and as noted quality has gone to the dogs. Regretfully we are all somewhat brand loyal........but you cant get a Sorel pack boot made like you could before. I'll suggest another brand, Acton, still made in Canada, and still the maker of our militarys mukluks (winter boot).

 

[zogger]

boots

Question two; I would like a pair of winter pac boots, but not really bulky ones. The cement floor in the shop will likely be quite cold no matter what I use to heat the building. I looked at some pac boots yesterday, but they were cheap, flimsy and lacked any real support in the soles. My feet get cold easily, so a good cold rating would be nice.

Next winter will be totally different, I have a very large woodstove secured and there WILL be a chimney and a woodpile.

I have quite a few saws to fluff up and liquidate and it isn't going to wait for warm weather to arrive here![/QUOTE]

--I went through a number of those expensive "pac" boots before. Bah. wicked expensive. I found some surplus army "mickey mouse" arctic boots worked twice as good. I think you can get them for like 20 bucks online. Just get them one full size larger than you normally wear in boots, then can just add another layer of thick insulated socks. Much easier to deal with washing them that way then felt liners. there are two kinds, all black rubber, the cheaper and what I used, worked fine in maine winter weather, then they have the white inflatable kind, which are designed for for-real arctic and I have never used them so can't say if they are worth the extra cost just to hang out in a cold garage. Even those are less than half a medicore pair of "pac" boots in price. Just run a google search, "boots, arctic, mickey mouse", you'll see both kinds. Yes, they are heavy, but how far you going to be walking inside a shop???

And what the count said, quickie, any old rugs you can find to throw down on the floor. Just as much for the extra comfy as beating the cold. Maybe get some from some carpet guys that are doing new installs, they haul away the old rugs, and you can be picky, ask for the "no pets" rugs. I'd still spray them down first good with anti every-cootie-thing spray as soon as you roll them out though.

 

[fidiro]

Look through craigslist or something and try to pick up an old pellet stove and just run some exhaust pipe through a crack in the wall.

 

[Moss Man]

The building is insulated enough so that I can probably run the heater for an hour or two and then shut it off and be comfortable for a couple more hours. There's a window next to my saw bench, it'll be open a little and the Carbon Monoxide tester will be hung nearby.

 

[jimdad07]

This is going to sound like jury rigging, but it works great. Take a piece of 6" well casing and cut it about 2' long. Insert a piece of 6" 26ga stovepipe about 2' long and put the male end into the well casing, secure with a couple of self tapping screws. Put a piece of sheet metal underneath that. Take a brush burner (it is a long wand that hooks to a lp cylinder and is about 3' long with a barrel about 6" long and 2" diameter on the end) there is a valve on the handle of the burner to control the flame. Put the burner end into the well casing end about a foot after you light it. You will be amazed at how much heat that will put out just by convection and how little lp you will use to run it. The one we made is up off of the floor about 6" on the stovepipe end and about 4" on the well casing end. As the heat goes through the stove pipe, it actually creates a small draft and sucks cold air from the bottom and throws the heat out very well. It looks like a hillbilly salamander. Almost forgot: you will need a regulator off of the tank, a bbq grill regulator works fine, otherwise you will create a flame thrower and it has to be off of the floor.

 

[SkippyKtm]

Sounds like you made a good choice going with the propane, I've worked with both kerosene and propane heaters, although the propane does put a lot of moisture in the air, at least the fumes are bearable. Buy or rent a larger tank -they do suck it down fast, too bad you didn't have enough time for a wood stove!

 

[jimdad07]

Sorry, I posted before I read where you had bought a Mr. Heater. Those work quite well.

 

[fearofpavement]

I know it varies from person to person but I can not work in a building with a kero salamander heater. The fumes give me a severe headache in short order. I have been able to somewhat tolerate a propane fired salamander Mr. Heater with ventilation. On the salamander I used kerosene, diesel fuel, Jet A, etc and nothing made a difference. Then I thought maybe the big heater was too old and not burning clean so I sold it and purchased a smaller new one. Same results. Got a hanging natural gas furnace and problem solved.

That was in MI. Here in Georgia I use a double barrel stove. It easily heats my 2,400 sq foot shop. And it does get cold here. The forecast for tonight is 22 degrees. (yeah, I know you Canada guys laugh at that but remember its Fahrenheit)

My stove is vented straight up with uninsulated pipe and it works great. The only problem I have is that the top barrel only lasts two seasons before the bottom of it rusts out. Barrel stoves heat way better than one would expect for what they cost and you can burn anything in it. I was burning busted up pallets today but usually burn pine.

For the cold floor problem, I wouldn't buy boots, I would scrounge some old carpet and fold a piece in half and stand on that. Its cheap, its comfortable, it can be swept off because you're on the back of the carpet with the pile inside and best of all, if you drop a piston it won't break the skirt off it. Well, maybe tomorrow I'll send this book to my publisher and have it printed. Too much coffee I guess.

 

[fidiro]

How much is a 20lb propane fill and how long does it last? here it's about $16 to refill. I can buy 3 bags of pellets for that refill and if they are on sale I'll get 4. Four bags of pellets will last well over 100 hrs with pellet stove on low and puts out lots of heat. Sure a new pellet stove is expensive but a used simple one can be had for less than 200 with pipe if looked for. No fumes indoors, no headaches just needs some installing.

That propane setup should heat nicely as well but it still leaves carbon dioxide indoors, don't it? Easy to use and takes up little space. If it works well and not much dioxide then that is all that matters. You'll have the wood stove by next winter I'm sure.

 

[Moss Man]

Yes, I will definately have the woodstove hooked up and a decent pile of wood to go along with it. The propane heater will then be handy to heat the shop quickly before the wood burning season gets into full swing.

There is a carpet wholesaler nearby, they have tons of remnants so I'll grab some burber.

 

[blackoak]

I have one of these in my shop along with a large wood burner I built. The Purafire heater is for night time or when I'm not there burning wood. I have water in my shop and I got to keep it above freezing. I think I paid around 300 bucks for mine about 10 years ago. It hangs from the ceiling out of the way. It is a propane vent less heater. I set the thermostat at 35 degrees. It never kicks on during the day, but at night it keeps it above freezing inside.
Wholesale PuraFire Heater

 

[fearofpavement]

Yes,

There is a carpet wholesaler nearby, they have tons of remnants so I'll grab some burber.

Man, don't buy carpet to put on your shop floor, find out where they're doing an install and need to get rid of the used stuff. They probably have to pay to get rid of it and I'm sure you can score some for free. They'd probably bring it to you.

 

[Moss Man]

I gave the Mr Heater a good test run today after assembling it and giving the instruction booklet a good read. It fired right up and immediately you could see the metal on the top starting to heat up and lose it's shineyness, oh well!

Within a half hour the second floor was up to 60 degrees from 35. The bottom floor was a little slower to respond to the heat. The noise level didn't seem too bad, even on high. The fumes were a little noticeable, but I had to wonder how much of it was the paint burning off the top of the cage. I brought a carbon monoxide tester out from the house just to be safe and it never even chirped. I left a window cracked upstairs and downstairs as well, just to be safe considering the building is insulated and somewhat airtight. The noise and fumes were much less than what I had experienced from a kerosene space heater in the past.

There wasn't much propane in the 20 lb cylinder, so within and hour it ran empty.

The thing is, the thermal mass inside the building is dead cold and the minute the heat source is gone it gets cold again real fast. If I could have ran the heater for a few hours on medium I believe things would have been quite comfortable on the bottom floor. I could easily work on the second floor with the heater on low. The interior is two floors, but there is a large opening in the second floor, allowing most of the heat to rise straight up.

The woodstove will be the ultimate cure, but until next fall what I have will have to do.

 

[fidiro]

Glad to hear you like it and it will work out for you. Propane is definately safer then kerosene fumes. I don't know how long the heater hose is but I would just keep the propane bottle as far from the heater as possible, shouldn't do anything but I would feel safer having it as far as possible from the heat source. Just don't stretch the hose and trip over it.

 

[Chris J.]

Have you tried using a fan to spread the heat on the lower level?

We have small natural gas heaters built into the walls in our two bathrooms. Our central heat does a poor job of heating the master bedroom, so sometimes I fire up the bathroom wall heater, and use a fan to blow the heat into the bedroom. With no fan it takes forever to heat the bedroom, with the fan it gets toasty pretty quick.