# Shop Shuffle



## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Got busy in the shop yesterday, rearranging things, tossing out open base stand, moving the DC out of the way. Still more to go but this pix shows the progress.

All tools are now on cabinet stands with doors and on casters. This is so I can get under and around them to suck up the sawdust that hides behind the stands. The doors really help keeping the dust out of hiding places. 

There is still more to do, including using the open space at the end of the shop to store flat goods. In the picture, that is the whole back wall. Starting from the left, the new Rikon 10 inch band saw, then the sander on a stand with all sanding material on it, then the Bosch 10 inch sliding miter, surrounded by a shower curtain to contain and collect sawdust into a box connected to the DC unit. Next is the HF 2hp DC unit, connected to a chip collector drum. The back wall, particularly up high, holds wide shelves for my various jigs and not so often used tools.

Behind the table saw there is a space sufficient to store flat goods. I will be setting up a slanted, flat backed stand to help keep this material flat. At present, they stand vertically, clampped together to help keep them flat, and blocking access to a long work bench and materials storage area with bins. Getting the flat goods out of there will open up the whole end of the shop. At some point, I will be enclosing the space under this bench to keep the sawdust out of there, which is impossible now.

Just to the right of the table saw is my router table, and out of sight, at the bottom of the picture is my workbench, which has a fold down back half for assembling larger items.

You get an idea of how bright the shop is now with all the LED lighting installed during 2016.

My other project in the works is a solar heater that will be mounted on the roof that will recirculate the air in the shop through a tube in a glass covered flat black box. I hope this will make the shop livable without running up the heating bill. It will have about 30 feet of 4 inch aluminum flex piping, painted black, with a small fan at the end to blow heated air into the shop through an insulated tube. The intake will come from the shop, probably from about waist height, through a filter of course, to reheat the same air. It will be a closed system with one way flap valves to keep hot summer air out. I will likely put a reflective cover on top during summer since this is a cold weather solution. If we had snow, I'd figure out a way to knock it off--that's for @RainMan 2.0. He might be able to use this by insulating the box with foam on the bottom and sides. Winter sun will still heat the air enough to make this work, but I'd make it much larger. Attached are a couple of pictures of solar heaters. Mine will be more like the second picture.

The best thing about rearranging the shop and tools is the increase in open space so I can move without impaling myself on some protruding tool.


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Tom I'm liking that black tubing your using to collect the heat . I've googled this subject a lot , as the 26' side of my garage that is facing south is unobstructed . So this would be an ideal area for a collector . Thinking 4'-8' would be a good starting point seeing as plexi sheets ,styrofoam and plywood come in that size already . 
My thought was closer to vertical, so that there's no issues with snow collection . Was going to mount it 3' off the ground so it's accessible . 
Not sure if I'll build one , but it's tempting . I am going to use a 240 V heater to heat the garage , so a solar heater may reduce the bill enough to justify. 
Seen tests using black screen , black ABS , to just having the inside painted black . I was shocked when the screen mesh won (Not by much but a few degrees ).
My thoughts were to use a solar cell to run a computer fan to help with circulating the air , although some systems work with plain old vectoring.

Will be interested to see how your system turns out


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

BTW @RainMan 2.0, sorry about mentioning the I word, but I couldn't avoid it. Beside, I think this might really help your heating situation. Just increase the size of the unit, or add a couple of them. It will cost about $120-$140 or so (US) in materials. Exterior ply, paint tubing, an inline fan if you want to fancy it up a bit and the one-way valves at a hardware store. Some sort of mounting brackets. Have it tilt toward the South since late fall, winter, early spring is when you'll likely be using it. Even if it doesn't really make the shop warm, it will at least assist the heater, giving you at least a few hours of shop time. Recirculating the air will help as well, just add a filter box to the intake port. I'm going to put the inline fan indoors so I don't even have to worry about wiring. I'll unplug it when not in use. Hope this post helps all my cold weather friends.


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## kklowell (Dec 26, 2014)

I like that solar collector too, but where my garage sits it doesn't get much sun.That's great in the summer, but doesn't help much this time of year.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

@Rainman2.0, I wish I had a clear southern exposure on the shop wall, but at least I don't have snow to worry about. Interested in your black screen comment. Where did you find that info?


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

kklowell said:


> I like that solar collector too, but where my garage sits it doesn't get much sun.That's great in the summer, but doesn't help much this time of year.


Mount it on the roof? Tilt it south. Even if you only get 10 or 12 degrees improvement, it would cut your bill a lot during the day.


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Price wise Tom , seeing as I'm Canada it will closer to triple when the smoke clears I'm sure . I'm not doubting around the $1000 mark . 
Just price that pink foam board and 1/4" plexi out north of the border, and that a major dent already , and that's not even tsing into consideration the BB and solar cell and other misc stuff. 

Here's the link . I'll have to re read it again to confirm I'm remembering this right . 

Comparing Solar Air Heater Designs & Performance ? Stonehaven Life


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Double Screen Type: From somparing solar air heaters.

screen type solar air heater section - stonehavenlife The screen collector is another common type that’s frequently used and it’s the easiest and least expensive to build.The black mesh screen provides lots of contact surface for transferring heat to the moving air, while adding very little resistance to the air flow. In most instances, the screen is tilted within the box so the screen is closer to the glazing at the top of the unit. A layer of black window screen can be stapled to each side of a wooden frame and mounted within the box.

In the tests that Gary and Scott ran there seemed to be no appreciable difference in performance between metal and fibreglass window screen material. As with all solar heaters, try to keep as much air as possible away from the glazing to reduce heat loss. 

The double layer black screen is apparently what transfers the heat into the air. But you'd definitely want to have a filter over the intake to prevent dust from collecting and blocking the screen. You'd also want to make it easy to remove the glass cover to clean the screen.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

I have the double glass assembly from an old sliding double door that is about 36x76 inches that could be used for the cover. That would determine the size. Maybe hinge the thing in some way to make it easy to lift off for cleaning. Maybe just taping it in place to seal it in place would be enough, using aluminum duct tape. Cut through it to lift the glass. I like the simplicity of this, and the tests showed the design was efficient.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

Years back I had a ton of info on solar heating. Not sure, but I think a solar heater would be more efficient on a wall, rather than the roof, if you can. The theory is, you send out the cool air at floor level, and as it heats it rises, and is expelled into the shop. Don't even need a fan for it, if you just have straight airflow.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

@RainMan 2.0, I didn't get the reference to a solar cell. Would that be to run a fan? That would really be efficient. A small DC fan might be sufficient and a HF solar cell might power it. Lots of small fans around for various low DC voltages.

Holy cow, we're doing borderline engineering here!


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

While you are thinking solar you could use a small solar panel to power a small fan like a computer fan mentioned earlier. You want the sun to heat the air as much as possible so a smaller fan would let the sun do it's job. Too large a fan and you won't get the heat gain you need.


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

DesertRatTom said:


> @Rainman2.0, I wish I had a clear southern exposure on the shop wall, but at least I don't have snow to worry about. Interested in your black screen comment. Where did you find that info?


Me, too. I haven't heard of that before.


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

All nice, Tom. Do you do outpatient work?


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

chessnut2 said:


> All nice, Tom. Do you do outpatient work?


Not quite sure what you mean. I consult to eye doctors, but I am not one myself.


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## sunnybob (Apr 3, 2015)

Vertical panels wont work. You need to calculate exactly where in the world you are;
Optimum Tilt of Solar Panels

You need the panels to be as big as possible to have any effect at all.
Tom, slice open that double glazed glass unit and build two collectors.

Take the hot air from the top of the room and pump it through the panel to the bottom of the room. At best you will only get a few degrees heat, so if you add those few degrees to the temp of the room at the lower level, you wont feel much difference.But if you take the hottest air from the top, adding a few degrees to that and pumping it to knee level will give you a feel good factor.

Slow air speed will give you a greater temperature increase.

Dont expect too much from this type of system, it will be better than nothing, but it isnt the magic bullet to solve the cold air problem.
To give an idea of size required, to heat my swimming pool by 10 degrees I would need panels of TWICE the surface area of the pool.


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## firstmuller (Aug 28, 2014)

RainMan 2.0 said:


> Price wise Tom , seeing as I'm Canada it will closer to triple when the smoke clears I'm sure . I'm not doubting around the $1000 mark .
> Just price that pink foam board and 1/4" plexi out north of the border, and that a major dent already , and that's not even tsing into consideration the BB and solar cell and other misc stuff.
> 
> Here's the link . I'll have to re read it again to confirm I'm remembering this right .
> ...



Rick 
When using the plexi, be sure to leave enough room for expansion and contraction.


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

DesertRatTom said:


> @RainMan 2.0, I didn't get the reference to a solar cell. Would that be to run a fan? That would really be efficient. A small DC fan might be sufficient and a HF solar cell might power it. Lots of small fans around for various low DC voltages.
> 
> Holy cow, we're doing borderline engineering here!


Yes the solar cell would run the fan . This way the system doesn't use any energy .
Reading Bobs prior post though , maybe building this system isn't worth the 2 degrees difference it provides 

I didn't really want to put holes in my garage , and wanted to pipe both vents threw a window,
but ideally I'm sure it would work best if the cold air came from the bottom by the shops floor , and went into the collector outside , then the hot air vented out the top into a higher location threw the garage wall .
This way natural vectoring would take place also helping the efficiency


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