Hi,

I would not advocate the use of any fabric materials to cover bare steel worksurfaces as they absorb and hold moisture, cotton especially. Cotton is used for clothing as it absorbs moisture and holds it very well. All the lathe manufacturers used to supply covers as an extra, Myford and Boxford used transparent vinyl. Earlier ones used a coated fabric.

I use clear vinyl sheet shaped and sewn to suit each machine. I also leave a couple of large bags of silica gel on each machine (on painted surfacea) and have a magnetic strip around the bottom of the cover to create a dry mini environment around each machine. Keep the ways oiled and I have no problems with rust in an unheated detached garage.

In severe weather I have heaters made from a couple of 40W incandescent bulbs on a base connected in series to provide a gentle heat under each machine.

Regards

T

Edited By Terryd on 01/12/2012 11:52:22

I keep my milling machine covered with a barbecue cover bought from a garden centre. It has a plasticised inner surface that has started to break up and shed after about five years. Other than the little plastic flakes I heve never seen dirt or rust on the machine. Swarf is a different matter. Perhaps it is time for a new one. The Christmas list, possibly.

The lathe is protected by a Myford plastic cover but again this ages and starts to become stiff, or less flexible than a new one. I guess that it will eventually become brittle.

The workshop is a dry garage and I keep both the lathe and milling machine oiled, never dry. The adjacent garage, which is connected by a 6 foot wide opening, houses motorcycles. Every so often one is put back wet. I do not consider rust a problem, machine tools or bikes, but I don't ignore it.

JA

I cover the lathe and miller with a couple of old towels (Bath sheets) and put a low wattage tubular heater under them. Its a very cold unheated and drafty garage in the far north of Scotland but have had no problems in the six years we have been here.

You're worried about dust? Look what I've got to sort out after our flood scare earlier this week! And only a week after a good tidy up too.

Neil

P.S. I use sheepskins to guard my tools, dressed witha combination of goosegrease, lanolin and whale oil it works a treat

Damp cold workshop? what's that ?

28 degrees in mine yesterday, uninsulated and must be 20 tonnes of machinery and steel stock.

John S.

Hello John,

At 28 degrees I'm not sure if your roasting in Celsius or freezing in Fahrenheit.

Doug

I'm not sure what temperatures are in my workshop during summer – in August it's often 50C outside.
It's brass monkeys right now though, we live halfway up a mountain on a little farm and the climate follows it's own rules. And being Spanish rules, there aren't any

Thankfully my wife is a tolerant sort and I have an indoor gunsmithing area organised. I suppose it's a step up from me cleaning pre-unit Triumph crankcases in the sink and rebuilding Land Rover engines in the 'dining room'

Hi Neil,

If you think that is a problem, after the conflagration that was my garage workshop the first great Loss Adjuster surveyed upon the scene and liked it not. "We have wondrous power, will demolish, clear the site and rebuild". Then a second Lord Loss Adjuster frowned and with great wisdom sayeth "no need to demolish, fear not we can repair". I said "but floor of concrete is damaged", Adjuster 2 looked down on me fondly and said "fear not O little one, I know best".

Two years have since passed, still problems with patched floor, friable concrete and negative camber from door and there was great wailing and gnashing of teeth (from mke). Lo enter Loss Adjuster 3 to survey the chaos. When the scales fell from his eyes he saw the devastation "dear oh dear what a mess, but our brother adjusters one and two are no longer with us, worry not we will rip up the old floor and re-lay the concrete to it's former glory – it will be a wondrous sight to behold".

So now they will deliver unto us a wondrous storage unit in which to keep safe the treasures of my workshop and leave me bereft of workshop for another 6 weeks "Hmmph" said I unto the Main Man.

And you're worried about a drop of water and dust!

Best regards

resignedly yours

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 01/12/2012 17:31:43

For the last year I have been using a dehumidifier (domestic size) in the workshop. The output is astonishing and very variable – occasionally fills up in a day, other times takes a week. We live some 20 feet from the sea, so humidity is always high but the variation is obviously huge. I have a thermallly controlled background heater (57 degs) and I get very little rusting in a 20' x 10' quite well insulated space.

Rgds

Bill

I use a 1.5kW oil filled heater in my workshop, but have it wired to a frost stat set at 7°C. It does not come on very often even with the minus temps we have had over the last few days.

I also leave a de-humidifier on all the time, I empty the one gallon container usually around once a week.

My workshop is basically a 16' x 12' wood shed, but all the walls and roof are lined with 2" of polystyrene sheet and a ½" layer of plywood inside, the key thing here is to minimise any "sudden" changes in temperature, that is when your condensation problems happen. As already stated, the danger time is when you have let all your big lumps of metal go very cold, then the weather changes and warms up, the warmer air condenses out on the cold metal, and next time you look it is rust city.

When I am actually in the workshop in these cold times, I supplement the heat with a 1200W radiant heater, and that makes it bearable to work in without changing the temperature too radically. Wrap up with more layers if its body heat you need, I only worry about my hand temperature as gloves and watch making lathes are not a good combination.

Phil