Rust and moisture in the shop?

[Dave M]

I have spent the last 3 years building a new shop. Why so long? beacause I built almost all of it by myself. So it is now weather tight and I have been moving my equipment out there from the basment of my house. So here is the problem I live in maine and the weather here has big changes. last night 20 deg. today 48 deg. every thing in the shop is covered with dew = rust later. I know easy fix install heater =$$$$$$$. So I am looking for any tricks that wont break the bank. This shop is 16'by 28' with 10' ceilings with full 2nd floor. the construction is 2"by 6" rough cut hemlock with white pine shiplap siding. there is no insulation installed yet. any suggestion would be great. I dont smith full time yet so I can,t count on the forges to dry it out inside.

[skunkriv]

Have a friend in Green Bay who swore by this. He would leave the fan blowing on his overhead heater 24/7 through the winter even when the heat was off. Keeping the air stirred up evened things out enough he said he had no condensation problems. I haven't tried this, I don't mind a little rust here n there

[Finnr]

The fan works and a light wipe of ATF is good too.
Finnr

[m_brothers]

You can also run a few floor heaters around the stuff that you don't want to rust, cheaper than a full heating system.

[HWooldridge]

WD40 - that's what it is made for...

[Pault17]

as a home inspector in real life, I world have to agree with skunk.continuous airflow works. insulation next. WD40 always helps.
in central NC we have the same funky weather. just not so low all the time. it was 70-plus today. , in the teens a week ago

[Dave M]

Thanks for all of the help, that is why I love this site. I have a big shop fan that I use to vent the shop so this morning I will turn it on and leave it on. I will try to get my wood stove installed sooner then later. I dont mind a little rust on my hand tools. Its the power tools I worry about but for those some one told me to wrap them with packing blankets,so tonight before bed I will tuck in the plasma cutter and welders

[saintjohnbarleycorn]

I keep an old oil rag shirt on the anvil. The electronic equipment is a bit tougher though. the big fan might use a lot of electricity. I wonder if you could just build a box that fits over each piece of equipment and put a light bulb in there with them, a 25 watt should do it? Its the change in temp that is the killer. warm air and cold steel it condenses. The wood stove would be the best bet, I would guess you have a lot of wood to work with there! good luck.

[Flop]

A couple of bags of regular charcoal will also suck up any mosture in the air, I put a bag in my storage shed full of old furniture and that keeps the hummidity off it.

[ThomasPowers]

We often get 40 degF + swings in temperature out here, even greater if you consider the swings in my uninsulated sheet steel shop; but with often single digit humidities I haven't seen the "internal rain" so common when I was living in OH.

I guess moving to New Mexico is not an option?


Thomas