Hi to All,
Am looking for covers to keep my machines covered when not in use. After looking through a few WW catalogs, I find such covers to be a bit pricey. Has anyone found a less expensive alternative? Thanks in advance for your thoughts/suggestions. BTW, I live in an area with hot summers, foggy winters, not a whole lot of rain (<4″/yr.)
T2
Replies
Depending on where you live, you might be able to get them custom made for less money than you'd spend on ready made covers. Try an awning shop or a sailmaker/marine canvas shop. You need a material that will breathe to prevent condensation from forming under the cover & creating perfect conditions for rusting.
Mangler,
Thanks for your suggestion. I'll contact a nearby awning shop and see if they have anything comparatively inexpensive that matches the criteria.
T2
Edited 10/19/2004 2:53 pm ET by TRUSCHE2
In Wood Magazine a couple of issues ago a subscriber said that bath towels worked fine. I have not tried this but I will try to do a test comparison. I currently use the HTC machine tool covers and they seem to work better than a canvas cover that I had made for my old jointer.
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
JerryP,
Bath towels would certainly be within my limited budget. Thanks for the suggestion.
T2
I've considered using the covers made for high-end BBQ's. They seem to be about the right size, may not look as slick, but if they work....?
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
FG,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure of the cost of high-end BBQ covers but it's worth a look. BTW, have decided on a moisture meter? If you do choose the PSI please let me know how well it performs. The price is certainly right.
T2
I'll let you know, T2, whichever one I end up buying. It's currently between the PSI unit and the CenTech. May depend on which company has other stuff I need, to keep the shipping costs down.
There are a couple of other forums I haven't visited in a coon's age. Probably should go over and do some searches, see if anyone else has bought the CenTech.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Jamie -I'm really leary about using any kind of vinyl-type material to cover my machines. I've seen what can happen with using a large tarp over an RV through the winter, and the few times I covered my table saw with a large sheet of vinyl wall covering I wasn't pleased with the appearance of the cast iron when I took it off. As someone else mentioned, the moisture seems to get trapped under them, no air circulating and .... the results speak for themselves.My atmospheric conditions here in the foothills of the cascades in NW WA state may not be the same as other people .... your mileage may vary............
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
Look in the big box stores for a screen type material usually a poly fabric
used for covering patios and garden structures to provide filtered shade.
It comes in 6 foot widths and is sold off a roll. It keeps the major dust off the
surfaces of my jointer and bandsaw and breathes well. It's inexpensive
and typiclaly is green black or grey. Of course you keep your machine surfaces
clean and treated with paste wax, right? This has worked well.
Duster1,
Indeed I do use paste wax on the equipment. I'll look into the material you described later this week during a trip to Lowe's. Do you have an idea/guess as to the mesh size of this screening material? Ordinarily I wouldn't bother with such a trivial detail, but I have seen such material in different mesh sizes. Thanks in advance.
T2
I have a whole pile of HTC machine covers sitting in the corner of my shop.
Bought them because the W/D are in the same space and for reasons I won't go into here, we need to vent the dryer into the shop. A lot of moisture.
I found the moisture was being trapped under the HTC blankets and causing as much, if not more rust than before.
Ended up using an open weave polyesther blanket. The open weave traps the water vapor on its way in, and let's the machine breath between "soakings". No rust since I started to use the throw-away blankets.
Still have the HTC blankets if you want to buy them.
_________________________________
Michael in San Jose
"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." Bertrand Russell
Michael,
Thanks for the offer. I may go the blanket route. Can these types of blankets be purchased at Wal-Mart, Target,..., ect. You mentioned that they are "throw-away". Do they have a half-life? If so, how much use do you get before having to discard them?
T2
Any home furnishing type store will have. They are just normal open weave bed blankets. Probably $10 for a single bed size. Half-life should be close to forever if all you do is use them for machine covers._________________________________
Michael in San Jose
"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." Bertrand Russell
Old sheets.
Hi,
I bought 4 nice covers from Amazon.
Dick38
I use old sheets. Real cheap at yard sales and sometimes Goodwill. If you need something more fitted, maybe Grandad's Klan robes?
Not very elegant, but I use plain builder's plastic, available from any of the borgs in roll form.
Shop's fairly dry, no problems with rust.
Q: How do you know when a politician is lying?
A: His lips are moving.
I've found a dehumidifier the best solutionin my 900 ft shop. Also, packing the pores with talc has eliminated any rust on machine surfaces.
I've been using some old sheets that my wife was going to toss. They're light weight and seem to work well.
If you don't count the "stuff" sitting all over the shop (lol), I never use covers - and would certainly never use any kind of plastic or vinyl. We're just getting into the rainy season here in CA, so it's time for my semi-annual shop cleanup and rewax of the machine tables. That usually takes care of things for the winter.
I'll have to do some research, but I'm sure that I read somewhere that a fine coating of sawdust was also an excellent rust preventative. :-0
Dave -
I heard the exact opposite (I think) - that a fine coating of (wood) dust actually attracts moisture and promotes rust.
...........
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
You're probably right, Dennis, but one advantage of living in northern CA is that we seldom have rust problems. (If you see a rusted out car around here, it probably came from somewhere back east - lol). For me, machine covers would just be something else to have piled up somwehere in the shop.
If I were to make up machine covers, I would also look into using landscaping fabric. It comes in large rolls, is inexpensive, and would protect the machines but still allow air circulation.
Dave -
We (I) get some really bizarre atmospheric anomalies up here in Skagit Co. where I live (WA State). Like nothing I've experienced before after living in the NW most all my life.
At certain times, mostly in early spring, sometimes late fall, the humidity gets so high and the air enough warmer than most of the solid objects exposed to it (eg. the concrete on the back porch slab, and, more importantly, the raw cast iron in the shop) that moisture just condenses on them like it had been raining. We live in the foothills of the Cascade Mts. and often see clouds drifting by our living room window! (grin).
This never happened that I recall when we lived "south" in Bellevue/Seattle but then the machines were in a quasi heated garage.
Thus far I've staved off the rust invasion with copious and frequent waxing of all the bare surfaces, plus some teflon stuff I picked up at East Side Saw a while back. This latter seems to have been worked the best so far. Wax is actually easier to apply plus doesn't put out the obnoxious (noxious) smell that the teflon spray does but ....ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Jamie -
Do you have your own power generation system? Consider your electric bill if you start putting light bulbs under everything. Not to mention the fire hazard! (grin) I shouldn't think you'd have as much of a rust prevention problem what with your nice comfy wood stove setup! (hehe)
Which reminds me - do you know anyone who's converting from a wood stove to gas or pellet? I'm on the prowl for a used wood stove. Don't want a new one since I have to make some mods (not telling!) so's to get my floor heat going in the shop this winter.
...........
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
Dennis, I'm having this vision of having a bare light-bulb underneath each cast iron surface in the shop (for those spectators to this conversation, Dennis and I live in the Great Humid Northwest). How many watts, LOL??
BTW, Nick and his son went hunting this weekend, got one of their permitted deer yesterday. Got venison?! Time to clear out the freezer I guess.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
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