i live in harrisburg, pa and i’m looking to start shaping out of my garage. i have it mostly set up at this point although i need to purchase a shop vac and snake the hose down over the shaping racks. i’m going to tape off plastic drop cloths ceiling to floor so i’m only covering half of the garage in foam dust (the 1/2 closest to the garage door). i don’t have any real concerns about the shaping process since i have all the necessary safety equipment. however, i am concerned about the glassing process. i own a 3-story townhouse where the living room sits above the garage. the garage is NOT heated and has no vents…however the water heater closet is just on the other side of the door leading from the garage into the rest of the house. the water heater is enclosed in a separate closet…but it’s basically separated from the garage by some studs and 2 sheets of drywall. which means that is what is separating the pilot light in the water heater from the fumes used in the glassing process. i’d prefer not to blow myself to kingdom come…should i be worried??? i can throw up pics of the water heater closet if they are needed. thanks
If your garage isn’t heated and you’re in PA, you aren’t going to be doing any glassing for much longer. When the weather is warm enough, glass with the doors open.
You might re think taping the plastic drop cloth to the celling as in time it is bound to come falling down. I have a similar set up as you are describing for shaping and I have the plastic stapled to 9 foot long round wooden doweling about an inch in diameter. They are suspended from the celling with hooks like you use for hanging stuff in the garage like Bikes etc. There is only a very small gap between the celling and the dowel, The plastic goes all the way to the floor and has extra at the bottom in which I anchor it with 2 by 4s The nice thing about this set up is you can roll the plastic up on the doweling and not deal with a bunch of sticky tape. I have a blue tarp against the garage door for contrast and actually use blue tap on the floor as well. You can close any seams in the plastic you have with clothespins or some tape. By no means is it a perfect system but it does keep the dust to a minimum from spreading through out the rest of the garage and also is easy to clean
plshaper - thanks for the tip. i had already planned on getting a blue tarp for the contrast (plus that can double as a shooter tutor in the winter for shooting hockey pucks :D) either way i do it the plastic drop cloths were going to be temporary; but, i kinda like the idea of not having to tape and re-tape it all the time.
sammy - yeah, for right now i’m going to head up to greenlight surf supply to get some instruction and use their shaping/glassing room. i’ll start in my garage sometime in spring/summer. i’ll definitely have the door open; but, for extra measure should i get a fan or two to help push the fumes out?
with glassing what are the range of temps, weather, humidity i’m looking for?
jdaloha, One thing i have learned is that the more you optimize and re fine your shaping space the better your shapes become. Even though you are setting up a temporary shaping bay try and set it up the best you can and make it work for you. Lots of good ideas on bays in other threads in this forum many of which are in garages.
I agree keeping the door open for glassing is you best bet. However when shaping better to keep the door closed as even with the plastic dust curtains any slight wind or breeze will just blow the dust all around. Side lights are important although it is not necessary they really make a difference in fine tuning your boards. You can get away with two 4 footers on each side. Again some good ideas in other threads in this forum. I run all my electrical to a surge protector. Lights, planer, Shop Vac all stay plugged in.
plshaper - thanks. yeah i’m gonna be getting side lights and running the shopvac straight to the planer. gonna stick with the surform and block plane for my first board or two till i get the hang of the planer. the glassing part is the only thing that concerns me. plus i don’t wanna waste a ton of materials and time. i’ve seen a number of great ideas already for improving the workspace. i’m lovin swaylocks so far
You can turn off the water heater. Not just down- be sure and blow out the pilot light. Relight it when the fumes have cleared. Usually the water will stay pretty warm for a couple hours so it won’t take that long to get back to normal water temps. You can use a fan to clear the fumes as well.
