C17 - Working through the winter in New England

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rezab
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C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by rezab »

Hi everyone, I'm thinking about getting back to work on a C17 now that classes will soon be over. I'll be working in an unheated garage in CT - outside temperature will probably be in the 30s and 40s.

At the moment, I am thinking of heating the garage while doing epoxy work with a forced air propane heater, but it would be great to hear how other people have handled working epoxy in cold weather.

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narfi
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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by narfi »

Wife's dining room is already climate controlled!!!!!

Also, propane heaters produce a lot of moisture I think?

Guess I don't have much to offer, other than when I built my hull in the wife's dining room, I have had to put my epoxy work on hold during the winters when I was building :/
At least you have a garage with the potential to heat, now to just find the best method :)

If heating and cooling in your work area, you want to heat before you work and then apply your epoxy during the cooling down stage to curing.
The air in the wood contracts as it cools and sucks in the epoxy for a great bond while cooling down.
But, if the wood is heating as the epoxy is curing, the air in the wood will outgas as it expands and you will have very nasty bubbles under all of your glass. (ask me how I know)

Good luck!

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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by BrianC »

I've been looking into a diesel heater fore my shed, something like this one. They exhaust to the outside so don't add water vapor or use up the oxygen in the room. Here is a video of a test run for shed heating that I found on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QSEV5fI6I_A.
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VT_Jeff
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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by VT_Jeff »

I use a crockpot to warm my epoxy, it happens to be a New England Patriots crock pot I got for Christmas some years ago. It actually worked extremely well every season until this one... :doh:
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joe2700
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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by joe2700 »

rezab wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:27 pm Hi everyone, I'm thinking about getting back to work on a C17 now that classes will soon be over. I'll be working in an unheated garage in CT - outside temperature will probably be in the 30s and 40s.

At the moment, I am thinking of heating the garage while doing epoxy work with a forced air propane heater, but it would be great to hear how other people have handled working epoxy in cold weather.
Ive been using a propane construction heater for the entire 4 years of my build in MA and it works great. Yes it adds humidity but during the time of year you need it the humidity is way too low so that's a good thing.

This one has been great for me after the cheaper one I used first broke: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRFVDP4

I make sure to run a CO detector when using it. If you run it for a really long time CO can register at very low levels. Not dangerous levels but best to know right away so you can let some fresh air in. Happened maybe 2 or 3 times in 4 years on very cold days.

You can really use controlling the temp to your advantage. On bare wood start warm and let the temperature drop as you apply to prevent bubbles as narfi said. Work on the cool end of the epoxy range for a large layup so you have time to apply then blast the heat to get the entire layer to cure quickly.

I have used probably a few hundred dollars of propane refills over the years, but I don't get a lot of days to work and they are mostly in the winter so it was worth it for me. You could certainly use a lot less if you just want to heat to the minimum you need to.

rezab
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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by rezab »

Thanks everyone for the good advice! @joe2700, how big a space are you heating with that propane heater? I'm trying to figure out what size propane heater will be appropriate for my garage.

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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by joe2700 »

rezab wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 6:43 pm Thanks everyone for the good advice! @joe2700, how big a space are you heating with that propane heater? I'm trying to figure out what size propane heater will be appropriate for my garage.
A small 2 car garage, 3 walls uninsulated, 1 wall and ceiling insulated. The heater I linked(30k-60k BTU) is more than adequate as it heats the space very quickly on high and I can't leave it on the whole time even in low without getting too hot(over 70F when it's below 30 out). So you could get away with fewer BTUs but I've been very happy with the quality of the one I linked compared to the earlier one I tried. The downside of the lower BTU units I looked at was they had no knob to control output, and I do find it useful to put it on low when its not that cold out or id already mostly warmed up.

If you won't use it as often as I do I'm sure you could get by with a cheaper unit.

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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by OneWayTraffic »

I'm building mine in a polytunnel outside in NZ. I upgraded the polytunnel with a heavy duty groundsheet to keep the sun and rain off. Temperature swings are part of the game, but I learned to deal with it by timing my applications of epoxy. I didn't try any winter building though. Definitely make sure that the heater doesn't exhaust inside.

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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by TomW1 »

If you have enough electrical juice I just bought 4 5000 btu gray farm heaters. They let you control the temp, but I found 4 of them kept the work area warm and the epoxy curing. This was basically an uninsulated 1 1/2 car garage. The heaters cost about $20 each and last several years.

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nightcrawler
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Re: C17 - Working through the winter in New England

Post by nightcrawler »

For what its worth, I bought a used trailer furnace on craigs list for $100. Benn using it 6 yrs, heats a 26' x 30 ' shop warn enough

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