garage workshop???

[vinnie_chip]

HI everyone, I have recently started making furniture in my garage in my spare time. The garage is not heated and gets quite cold in there.. will this cause my wood to cup or twist when I take the finished product inside my house? The things I'm making are mirror surrounds and coffee tables.. any advise would be much appreciated.

 

[dp341]

Changing moisture content is the main problem, also at this time of year some glues will struggle to cure in an unheated garage.

Best advice I could give is to cut the timbers oversize to start with and leave in the house for a couple of days before cutting to final size. Try to store it in a way that allows air to get to all sides of the stock. Then if possible bring the pieces back into the house whenever you're not working on them.

That should help to keep the moisture content stable and not change suddenly after you've carefully built the piece and brought it in.

 

[vinnie_chip]

Thanks, The reason I'm asking is ive just made a mirror using burr chestnut with burr elm bowties. Everything is sanded and oiled and was nice and smooth but today I noticed the bowties have 'sunk' by a fraction of a mil. Ive took it into the house now hoping it will go back to how it was, am I going to be pleasantly surprised or will I have to sand everything and re oil?? #-o

 

[Waka]

If you are looking at your garage as being the long term location for your hobby, then I would suggest you consider insulating your workshop, this will cut down on wood movement.
I agree with what's been said about acclimatising the wood in doors, but a nice oozy workshop is a happy workshop.

 

[vinnie_chip]

Thanks waka, not sure how best to insulate it as there are only two external walls, I could insulate one wall but the other has an up and over garage door... the other two walls are joined to The house and the ceiling has a bedroom above...

 

[Waka]

When I insulated mine I started with the floor that was originally concrete, the moved onto the walls that aren't attached to the house. I also had to do the ceiling because mine had a flat roof.
I battened out the walls and floor etc and placed Kingspan insulation between the batterns, then covers it all with ply. I was surprised how well this worked. Still had the up and over door to contend with, here I just filled in the gaps with insulation and taped it in. Been like that for a few years now. To plug the gaps around the door, I used that brush type draft excluder, seemed to work well.
To round that off I have 4 120 watt tubes heaters that raise the temp 4 degrees above background. So all in all a cosy place that keeps wood movement to a minimum.

 

[Lee Brubaker]

Heck my first garage/workshop was a stand alone double garage. Money was tight. I insulated the entire outer walls & underside of the roof by stapling old newspapers between the joists. I then ran a gas line from the house to the garage & used a small radiant heater to heat the entire 24 x 26 ft. garage/shop & it did an excellent job especially considering winters in my locale could have -25C days. The only drawback was that often an old article appearing in a newspaper would catch my eye & distract me. Good thing I failed to staple a newspaper page with the comics showing.LOL

Lee

 

[the_g_ster]

@ Lee

That sounded like only a small fire risk.....................

Glad it worked though.

 

[Bluekingfisher]

@ Lee

That sounded like only a small fire risk.....................

Glad it worked though.

Yeah, the fire would certainly eradicate the cold issue, for a short time at least :wink:

 

[vinnie_chip]

Thanks for the advise on the garage. Any ideas about my other question regarding the mirror?

 

[Waka]

Regarding the "bow ties" I'd be inclined to leave well alone for a couple of months so that the wood has completely settled in its new home. The if need be you can do a little sanding.

 

[vinnie_chip]

Thanks mate, I was hoping to sell it in a couple of weeks.. lol