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Your workshop is your safe haven, a place where you can slip
away, turn on the radio or put in a CD and forget about the problems of the
world while you work on your project. Regardless whether its a family heirloom
you?re restoring or a piece of unfinished furniture for the television room,
its great therapy. You will enjoy it even more ? and will get better results ?
if you first organize a small workshop or work area. Having worked everywhere
from the top of a picnic table to a third floor apartment balcony to a professional
woodworking shop, here are a few suggestions I would like to offer.
Q. - My wife
and I are cleaning out the garage and are going to set one part aside for our
refinishing projects. How much space will we need and how large of workbench
should we buy?
A. - As the
present owner of five workbenches, let me say this: save your money.
Stains,
finishes and removers will quickly mar the top of a beautiful new workbench, so
why put yourself through the agony of trying ? unsuccessfully - to stop it from
happening? All you need ? and its what I use most often ? is a pair of folding
sawhorses and a 4?x4? sheet of inexpensive plywood. When not in use, you simply
fold them up and slide them behind the lawnmower.
As
for space, a 10? square corner is all you need, along with some discarded
kitchen cabinets for storage and a pegboard for tools and brushes. Get an inexpensive
dropcloth for the floor, some old newspapers to catch the drips and you?re
ready to go.
Q. - My garage
is unheated. How cold can it get
before I have to stop staining and finishing?
A. - All stains
and finishes depend on evaporation for their drying process, so both the
temperature and the humidity are critical factors. I would only apply stains
and finishes when the temperature is between 65-80 degrees and the relative
humidity is 50% or lower.
These
ranges apply not just to when you are working, but the time afterwards when the
products are drying. Also, let any cold products warm up before you apply them.
Q. - What is
the best kind of lighting for my workshop?
A. - Natural is
the best, so try to do your staining and finishing near your garage door or a
window.
I
have probably worked under nearly every different kind of light available and
have come to the conclusion that the positioning of the light is more important
than the type of lighting.
When
reading, you want light coming in over your shoulder. When staining and
finishing, its just the opposite. You want to face your strongest light so that
(1.) you aren?t working in your own shadow and (2.) you can easily and
immediately spot any runs, drips, bugs, cat hairs and bristles.
I
do keep one or two of the lightweight clamp-on lights handy, along with its own
extension cord. When working on a large project, I clamp the light to a
stepladder, the back of a chair or a sawhorse and move it around with me so
that I am never working in the dark.
Q. - Do I need
to install an exhaust fan in my garage?
A. - I have in
the past, but unless you are spraying lacquer (which I do not recommend unless
you have a professional, explosion-proof spray booth) I think you can achieve
the better results for a lot less money.
I
use a two-fan arrangement in my garage, utilizing just two inexpensive
household box fans. I position one in the open doorway or window to blow fumes
outdoors. I set the other on the opposite side of my work area, blowing air
from my project toward the first fan.
I
prefer this over blowing fresh air directly from the outdoors toward my
project, for this way I get far less dust in my finish (more later in the
website how to get rid of dust).
Q. - Do you
advise working outdoors?
A. - Only when
providing adequate ventilation is impossible.
It
is easier to control a small workshop space than it is the great outdoors.
While the sun may seem like the perfect light, you can?t move it around as you
work. In addition, the heat it generates can (1.) draw moisture bubbles out of
your wood and into your finish, and (2.) cause the top film of your finish to
dry too quickly, which then causes problems with the wet finish beneath it.
Also,
you have no idea how many air-born particles float through your yard or across
your porch until you brush a coat of sticky polyurethane over the top of a
table. Before it dries, your tabletop will look like an old-fashioned strip of
flypaper.
Q. - A friend
in the automotive paint business has a steel, self-closing rag disposal
container in his workshop. He says it prevents spontaneous combustion. Is this
something you recommend?
A. - If someone
offered to give you one, I wouldn?t turn it down, but for the typical
do-it-yourselfer, you can take the same precautions without buying an expensive
fireproof trash can.
Spontaneous
combustion occurs as the oils found in many wood finishing products begin to
dry. In the process they produce heat, that, if not allowed to escape, can
build up to the point where the material bursts into flame. The most familiar
example is an oily rag wadded up and tossed into a garbage can. The oils dry,
but the heat can?t escape, so the rag catches fire. With fuel to burn and a
supply of oxygen, a small flame becomes a fire.
Your
friend?s expensive rag can wouldn?t necessarily prevent spontaneous combustion,
but it would contain it. A safer, foolproof method is to immediately submerge
your used rags or steel wool in a bucket of water.
Regulations
vary on how to properly dispose of these materials and any remaining wood
finishing products you don?t want to keep, so check with your local authorities
for specific instructions.
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