Good friend of mine needed a place to work out of the cold and of course he would call here... Nice wood heated shop and all the tools you might need for basic repairs.

34 minutes ago, Wild and Free said:

The overhead radiant heaters are extreme energy hogs, about the least efficient highest cost form of heat. Waste oil burners are fairly high maintenance from what I have seen and heard, very picky about having clean oil to operate correctly.

What do you use to heat your snow cave (shop) on Hoth?  

Edited January 17, 20169 yr by CSM

A shop I used to work for had a waste oil heater and that thing was constant maintenance. It had its own screen and filter system but it didn't seem to be adequate. Everything that goes in one should probably at least be run through a fine screen.  Shortly after I left apparently the moron shop owner dumped a bunch of gas in it to get it going. Long story but he was trying to do something on it with a torch and blew the heater and himself up. He survived just a little uglier now. 

14 minutes ago, CSM said:

What do you use to heat your snow cave (shop) on Hoth?  

Just has a goat and a donkey follow him around for a little radiant heat

I think just go with a Big Ol' Honkin woodstove, if only there was something to make it easy to start the fires. Sometimes a fire never wants to get going so I like Mikes idea laying a grass burning torch aimed inside the stove. That was classic.

Your amount of insulation will help loads. You can also quadrant off an area with insulated walls/ceiling to heat in winter time. That affords a storage loft up above if you sheet the top. Some guys do that and put in stairs going up.

What's wrong with a propane weed burner to light your stove? 20# propane bottle last all winter lighting the stove every morning.

Nothing! I like it. I spray a little wd40 on my kindling. It works great.

You guys in the NW with access to lots of timber have it nice... We really have to work for it in parts of Colorado.  The government doesn't want us to use up all the wood they save for the annual forest fires.  

 

 

In my case it is another savings not paying dump fees to dump the scrap.

My shop has an overhead propane furnace. I have it on a low temp thermostat that I can turn down to 35* when not working in it, but nice that it keeps things from freezing yet. I have a dark brown south facing shop door that absorbs some heat so when the temps are in the 20's it warms the inside of the shop just enough the furnace rarely kicks on, it is insulated but not very well or finished off yet. If I would finish it and add more insulation my heating cost would be really minor.

3 hours ago, CSM said:

You guys in the NW with access to lots of timber have it nice... We really have to work for it in parts of Colorado.  The government doesn't want us to use up all the wood they save for the annual forest fires.  

 

 

out here on the western slope we have an unlimited supply of beetle kill and at $10.. per cord you can cut untill your hearts content., I usually get about 5 or 6 cords within about a 20 mile radius from my place of spruce, ponderosa and aspen, The only bad thing is that the permits expire at the end of year. on 12/31, and don't go on sale again until April and all the FS roads close them selves anyway. and I'm usually out by the end of February, I just need a bigger wood shed. Ha!

 

 

That's exactly what I do. Head out up the forestry roads to go pick up all the fire killed trees I want. They are going to just rot and fall over and create another fire issues. So take then home and clean up the forest.

23 minutes ago, 01cummins4ever said:

out here on the western slope we have an unlimited supply of beetle kill and at $10.. per cord you can cut untill your hearts content., I usually get about 5 or 6 cords within about a 20 mile radius from my place of spruce, ponderosa and aspen, The only bad thing is that the permits expire at the end of year. on 12/31, and don't go on sale again until April and all the FS roads close them selves anyway. and I'm usually out by the end of February, I just need a bigger wood shed. Ha!

 

 

The closed roads drive me nuts.  It isn't nearly as good as it was in the early 900 or 80s with old roads everywhere. 

Pretty much an unlimited free supply of wood around me, not the best wood in the world but free is free and its everywhere. If I get lazy I have an unlimited supply of pallets and crates I can grab from work too.

Edited January 17, 20169 yr by Wild and Free

7 hours ago, Wild and Free said:

Ha Ha yeah you live in a different world, I love how repair shops do it down south, pour a slab and line up the hoists outside next to a small building with room enough for an office and toolboxes and maybe some parts and oil storage and that's about it.

I don't even have a lift,  never have. It's either a creeper or a pit. 

As a contractor I meet all kinds of folks. As some get older they want to go to a gas stove heater so last year I had two people give me their cut split firewood for free if I would haul it off. That is a good deal.

Firewood hauling, cutting & splitting, then stacking is my daily work out in the summer. Get lots of exercise and lose some pounds every spring.

40 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Firewood hauling, cutting & splitting, then stacking is my daily work out in the summer. Get lots of exercise and lose some pounds every spring.

My new dump trailer will make that chore a lot easier now too. Going to be a busy summer cleaning scrap iron from my in-laws farm now that I have a better way to haul it out.

17 minutes ago, Wild and Free said:

My new dump trailer will make that chore a lot easier now too. Going to be a busy summer cleaning scrap iron from my in-laws farm now that I have a better way to haul it out.

If you find any classic old car parts up there, talk to me before you send it to the crusher!  

Absolutely... Too much was crushed back when scrappers where hauling scrap metal. I watch several old 70's Dodge Trucks and Cars go into a crusher and turn into cubes in no time flat. All I could is cry... Now finding old 70's stuff is nearly insane. Like the fire dept is looking for a 1976 Dodge Pickup door but there is none left all been crushed.

I was at the recycle yard on Thursday.  They're paying 2½¢ a pound for steel.  It's not worth hauling it in right now.

4 minutes ago, IBMobile said:

I was at the recycle yard on Thursday.  They're paying 2½¢ a pound for steel.  It's not worth hauling it in right now.

Nobody is building anything. All the raw material commodities are down.  IMO, buckle up boys.  Stuff is gonna get cheap!  I am hoping land prices drop like a brick from heaven.

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Absolutely... Too much was crushed back when scrappers where hauling scrap metal. I watch several old 70's Dodge Trucks and Cars go into a crusher and turn into cubes in no time flat. All I could is cry... Now finding old 70's stuff is nearly insane. Like the fire dept is looking for a 1976 Dodge Pickup door but there is none left all been crushed.

More than just the 70s stuff.  Everything got crushed during cash for clunkers. A few short SHORT years ago, like 10 years, I was able to get parts for stuff and find neat stuff dating to the 40s and occasionally 20s in the yards in CO.  Now?  The yards are closed except for the big ones.  The old ones crushed everything under state "beautification" pressure and the opportunity to actually make a few bucks on their pile of steel.  

There were two all original 49 Buick Straight 8 2 doors parked in a yard near where I grew up.  They didn't run, but they were complete and original.  They hadn't moved for about 30 years as they were buried in the back of the yard.  They needed a front end loader and some $100 bills to the yard hands to get to them that I didn't have at the time. Flat. 

Edited January 18, 20169 yr by CSM