Winter is coming…and for those of us in Northern climates, this means below-freezing temperatures, snow, and ice. Most people who are familiar with cold temperatures recognize the need to prepare homes and cars for the change in seasons, but some may not consider how the cold affects their woodturning workshops, especially if they are new to woodturning.
In this guide, you will find some tips for winterizing your workshop so that your tools and equipment will function properly all year.
One of the first things you might wonder about when you consider making your workshop winter-proof is whether your machines need any special care. Many people question if the motors on their lathes or other power tools will run in cold weather or if blades or bearings need special attention.
The good news is that your machines will likely run well in cold weather; you are more likely to decide that it is too cold for you as a human before your machines quit running properly. That being said, there are some things you can do to make sure your lathe and other power tools will continue to run in tip-top shape straight through the winter.
One of the biggest threats to machines in the cold is the condensation that can form on them. Condensation happens when warm air comes into contact with a cold surface. Many woodturners use space heaters to warm their woodshops, or they might turn down the heat at night (or completely turn it off!) and turn it up again in the daytime, causing their tools and equipment to cool overnight and warm up in the morning. Because the air in the shop warms faster than metal tools, condensation is likely to form.
Condensation is also more likely to happen when there is standing water in the workshop. Standing water often occurs when a workshop is combined with a garage, as snow and ice can melt off the vehicles parked there. Even if a shop is not located within a garage, snow from a woodturner’s shoes or boots can melt and cause puddles, which adds moisture to the air as the puddles evaporate. Depending on what region or state you are in, the standing water from cars or shoes may also contain salt from roadways and walkways, which will settle on machines and surfaces as the water evaporates.
However it forms, condensation in a woodshop is a problem for machines because it can cause rust. Lathe beds made of stainless steel should not have a problem with rust, but other machine parts or tables not made of steel or steel alloy may periodically acquire a blush of rust.
Luckily, a slight bit of rust on your machines is not a cause for alarm; you can remove this easily with a bit of WD40 and steel wool. It also helps to polish the machines with paste wax after doing this. Close-fitting covers can be another option to keep machine parts from collecting condensation and therefore rust. Some woodturners who don’t have access to covers even use blankets or cloths to cover power tools, which will also keep moisture and rust off the machine.
Woodturner Tom Lucas, who has been turning for more than 30 years, also reminds new woodturners to avoid “keeping…liquid containers [on] surfaces” because “cool liquids in containers can cause the moisture in the air to condense and run down on metal surfaces.” Overall, the best way to keep your machines running well through the winter is to make sure they are cleaned and covered after each woodworking session.
Before we move on to other ways to winterize your woodturning workshop, it is important to make a note about the blades and bearings that are part of your machinery. While stainless steel lathe beds should be immune to rust, and cast-iron parts can be buffed, cleaned, and covered, blades and bearings may need special care.
The blades of your power tools might react differently to the cold because of their purpose in the woodworking process. In order to cut through hard objects like wood, they spin at extremely high speeds. If the temperature of the blade is too low, the rapid temperature change from friction can shatter it. Because of this, some experienced woodturners suggest making big cuts and doing rough work in the summertime when temperatures are not an issue.
Then, you can focus on carving and finishing projects with hand tools in the winter months and not have to worry about the possibility of blades shattering at high speeds. Otherwise, just make sure to let your blades warm up to at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit before using.
Bearings might also complain in cold weather; you might hear grinding or whining sounds when turning on an electric machine in a cold woodshop. It is best to let your tools run for a minute or two before using them to warm up the grease in the bearing.
Another item in your woodshop that is likely to be affected by the cold is the wood itself. The main issue with wood in the winter months is not the cold temperatures, but the humidity or lack thereof. The ideal level for humidity in a workshop is about 35% relative humidity (RH), which keeps the wood at about 7% wood moisture content.
Cold weather often means lower humidity and less moisture in the air, which can cause wood to dry and shrink. Too much shrinkage means cracks or warping in the wood, especially when working with hardwood.
During the winter months in Minnesota, humidity levels usually hover around 20% RH, which means that many people use humidifiers in their homes to raise their humidity levels to a more comfortable range. Humans find an RH level of 40%-60% RH comfortable, but wood doesn’t need to be kept as moist as human skin.
Keeping your woodshop at 35% RH will help you avoid getting cracks in your wood, and it will also help you avoid the possibility of condensation forming in your workshop. Keeping the humidity higher than 35% means that you might have to deal with more condensation.
To do this, you will need to invest in a humidifier for your woodturning workshop. Note, too, that while you might want to invest in a humidifier for winter months, a dehumidifier might be just as necessary for the summer months if you are in a place that gets humid.
Some woodworkers, especially those who are building a new woodshop, may want to invest in a heating/cooling system that also includes a built-in humidifier or dehumidifier. If this is not possible for you, however, portable ones should work just as well.
There are a few other things to keep in mind when thinking about how to winterize your woodshop and how to best store your tools, wood, and equipment through the winter months. If you are doing any woodturning that includes glues or adhesives, you will also want to think about how the cold weather will affect them.
Glue and wood adhere best at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but many woodturners do not heat their woodshops to 70 degrees all winter long. This means that both the glue and the wood are cooler, which means that the glue may not work as well.
Gluing cold wood is different than gluing warm wood. Even if the glue itself is kept warm, it cools down on contact with cold wood, making the glue thicker and more likely to dry quickly, even before you get your pieces set. This also means that the glue does not fill in porous wood.
Note that it may be hard to maintain a consistent temperature for glue in the summer as well, as you may need to cool the adhesive to prevent too much thinning.
Many woodturners suggest keeping glues and adhesives inside the house when the weather gets cold and transporting them with you to the woodshop when you need to use them. This is effective in keeping the glue warm, though you may need to make sure your wood is also warm enough before applying the glue.
Another suggestion is to buy or build a hotbox in which to keep your glues. One member of the Fine Woodworking group says that “A simple hot box, a simple plywood box with a door and an old fashioned 100W tungsten bulb, can usually keep your glues warm enough to use in most winter climates. Line it with foil lined insulation and it can be quite effective in keeping supplies warm and usable.”
Having read about the effect of cold weather on glue, you might also wonder how the winter elements might affect your wood finishes. There are slight differences in how water and oil-based finishes react to cold, but neither should be applied below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If you want to know more about the differences between water-based and oil-based finishes, see our previous blog post.
It should be no surprise that finishes also don’t work as well in the cold weather or in low humidity. They might cloud or thicken, which makes them difficult to use. This is especially true of oil-based finishes because once oils get cloudy, they are ineffective. You might also run into a problem with dimpling in the finish, commonly referred to as “orange peel.”
Water-based finishes are more susceptible to the cold, but dry time is also a problem for both. Water-based and oil-based finishes can take weeks to dry if they get below 50 degrees once they are applied.
Like glue, if a stain or finish is meant to permeate the wood, it will be unable to in cold weather, so the wood will not take on the stain as it should. This can result in streaks or uneven polish.
The best thing you can do to solve the problem of cold finish is to let both the wood and finish warm up before application. Placing the finish in a warm bucket of water for a few minutes before application can help ensure that the finish is the viscosity it should be. Using a heater to make sure the shop is warm will help make sure the wood is warm as well, which will make the finish permeate and dry on the wood correctly.
It is also a good idea to move the finished piece indoors to dry, or to keep your woodshop heated round-the-clock for a few days to make sure the temperature does not drop too low as your finish is drying.
Remember that you should never apply oil-based finishes near an open flame, so be careful if you have a kerosene heater or a wood stove in your woodshop.
The last thing to consider as you think about winterizing your woodturning workshop is yourself! It is no secret that humans respond differently to cold and heat, but there are some safety considerations to keep in mind when operating lathes and other tools used in the woodturning process.
When you are working in a cold workshop, it may be tempting to wear long sleeves, coats, hats, or even gloves while woodturning. However, while it might be safe to wear this sort of winter gear when tramping through the snow, it is not safe to wear coats or gloves, or even loose-fitting long sleeves when using a lathe or other power tools.
This is because gloves and other fabric can get caught in the machine and pull your hand, arm, or other body part into a machine before you realize what’s happening. This can result in extremely dangerous situations, where woodworkers might even lose a finger or hand.
Instead of wearing lots of layers while woodworking, it is recommended to use heaters to warm the air instead. You might still wear warm socks and thick boots to keep your toes warm, but plan to keep your hands and arms free from clothing.
Heating options could include a simple space heater plugged in under the workbench or in an out-of-the-way corner. Some woodturners recommend investing in a woodstove to burn scraps, which helps with both heating your woodshop and not letting scrap wood pile up.
Another possibility is adding insulation to your woodshop. When it comes to insulation in Northern climates, it is best to choose something that has a high R-value. The R-value tells you how resistant certain insulation is to heat flow, and R-values of 49 and above are recommended for states in the northern half of the United States. Insulation that will give this kind of R-value are standard fiber-glass insulation, blown-in insulation, and spray foam insulation.
Delivered straight to your inbox!