Keeping Warm in your Shop

[scotties22]

That's me alright....subtle and soft spoken

My husband and I own 3 small businesses and I hate when someone does something stupid like this to us. It is soooo unnecessary. All so the local municipality can make some extra money off the folks that just really don't have it.

Not to stir hate and discontent... generally electrical inspections are from the state. Local building inspectors don't generally like charging fees to people they can run into in the checkout line
(speaking as one who works for a local municipality )

andrew

We deal with The City of Kansas City, MO for inspections (It is City to City around here). Let's just say the experience is less than memorable. Just like calling the water department (City owned). This one time I called the water department to get the water turned on in a house we had just bought to flip. I got put on hold so I could talk to the supervisor and the girl just put the phone down on the desk and then tells some other girl named Shaneequa about a party she had been at the night before.....I could hear EVERYTHING. This goes on for about 5 minutes. Finally I get transfered to the supervisor. I'll be damned if it wasn't Shaneequa Let's just say there were a lot of "Girrrr" and "OH no he didn" and "UUhhhhh HHuuhhhh" thown around in the conversation. It's pretty much that way in every and I mean EVERY city office here. We also pay local earnings taxes three times as business owners....not fun.

I'm not saying anyone should shirk the system here. Building codes are there for a reason. But my problem is the electrician running and telling the building inspector something he had no right to share. Why does he care what the shop is getting used for? He is having the work he performed signed off on, nothing more. From a liability standpoint he can always deny he knew it was going to be used for woodworking if something were to happen. Was there a contract stating that electrical work was being performed on a shop that was to be used to woodworking? Probably not. More than likely the estimate and invoice read something like "install 3 new outlets in a shop or outbuilding." And if it read more than that he is an idiot.....less is always more

[Alden]

As far as keeping you shop warm, has anyone ever considered lighting your farts ? If you were very consistent it seems you could really boost the BTUs in a small space.

[wdteipen]

As far as keeping you shop warm, has anyone ever considered lighting your farts ? If you were very consistent it seems you could really boost the BTUs in a small space.

Tried that last winter. Miscalculated and got shit all over my Old Boy.

[sandahlpipe]

By the way, I've been running a little radiant space heater in my shop the past few days. It is reasonably warm inside, even though it's been below freezing. We will see what it does when it gets below zero out and how the electrical bill looks in a few weeks. I need to insulate the walls soon, and I'm sure that will help.

[Alden]

As far as keeping you shop warm, has anyone ever considered lighting your farts ? If you were very consistent it seems you could really boost the BTUs in a small space.

Tried that last winter. Miscalculated and got shit all over my Old Boy.

Of course there is a cost/benefit threshold to consider with any new system. You may hedge your expenses with a disposable lighter, but I fear that might leave a stain on your reputation for using less than the finest equipment in ones shop, and it could ultimately erode the Brand.
You are right as usual Wayne, if you are going to heat your shop with farts, you must use nothing less than best to do it.

[scotties22]

As far as keeping you shop warm, has anyone ever considered lighting your farts ? If you were very consistent it seems you could really boost the BTUs in a small space.

Tried that last winter. Miscalculated and got shit all over my Old Boy.

Of course there is a cost/benefit threshold to consider with any new system. You may hedge your expenses with a disposable lighter, but I fear that might leave a stain on your reputation for using less than the finest equipment in ones shop, and it could ultimately erode the Brand.
You are right as usual Wayne, if you are going to heat your shop with farts, you must use nothing less than best to do it.

Naaahhhh...I've found the cheap bbq lighters work the best. Keeps your hand out of the way and you can buy them in a two pack.

[oklahoma red]

One just needs to figure out a way to capture, compress and store thereby insuring an even supply of methane to the heater. Probably need to vent the heater.

All of which reminds me of a sea story from my days in the Navy and in particular my time at Jacksonville NAS. I was still an E-4 at the time and as such I had to stand fires watches in the barracks at night. The enlisted men's club was a short walk from VAP-62's barracks complex which made it quite nice for the drunks to find their way back.
Bob T. was a lifer, almost to the point of running out of room for time-in-service hash marks on his left sleeve. We served together in Saigon and we wound up together again at JAX. At the time he was an E-3. He had been busted so many times it was almost legendary. He was a happy drunk. No one had the heart to kick him out of service for it would have surely killed him. The Navy was his only home, no relatives. Due to his high intake of alcohol and bad food (quite fond of pickled eggs and baluts when he could find them) he was noted for some really bad stinkers. After an evening of fun and games at the EM club he comes reeling into the barracks on my watch. I was concerned he was going to puke his guts all over the place so I steered him into the head and got him into a stall. He decided he needed to empty his fecal conduit so I backed off to a reasonably safe distance. The timing of events that ensued was perfection. He was about a 4 pack-a-day smoker and decided to light one up while he took care of business. Then came a fart of monumental magnitude. Then came the still-lit match tossed between his legs. Then came the "whoomp" followed by a scream and good old Bob flying out of the stall with a perfect black circle of still-smoking arse hair. I can still clearly see the whole episode to this day. It was something you simply cannot forget.
The moral: be very careful when using fart powered shop heaters.

[Alden]

Scotty and Red bring up some valid points. I like the simplicity of a barbecue lighter, but there may be some validity to a flexible hose system that attaches securely to Denim, perhaps with a hook and loop setup.
Just need to source a cheap enough vacuum pump system...
Actually now I think of it, a small air compressor should do quite nicely. If you hooked up the air intake to a flexible hose, long enough to allow you to move around the shop and work freely, a small hood attached to the back of your pants would automatically collect and store any gas in the compressor tank.
Now you just need a very low PSI regulator to control the outflow and a flame proof attachment on the hose. Set your PSI and crack a match. Voila.

Or you could do like me and live in Texas. Seriously, even the cheapest little ceramic heater kicks on for 5 minutes and its a done deal.

[andrew]

...I'll be damned if it wasn't Shaneequa Let's just say there were a lot of "Girrrr" and "OH no he didn" and "UUhhhhh HHuuhhhh" thown around in the conversation. It's pretty much that way in every and I mean EVERY city office here. We also pay local earnings taxes three times as business owners....not fun...

Well that sucks. It's not like that out here. You'd risk getting canned for that in this region.

andrew

[caskwith]

That's me alright....subtle and soft spoken

My husband and I own 3 small businesses and I hate when someone does something stupid like this to us. It is soooo unnecessary. All so the local municipality can make some extra money off the folks that just really don't have it.

Not to stir hate and discontent... generally electrical inspections are from the state. Local building inspectors don't generally like charging fees to people they can run into in the checkout line
(speaking as one who works for a local municipality )

andrew

We deal with The City of Kansas City, MO for inspections (It is City to City around here). Let's just say the experience is less than memorable. Just like calling the water department (City owned). This one time I called the water department to get the water turned on in a house we had just bought to flip. I got put on hold so I could talk to the supervisor and the girl just put the phone down on the desk and then tells some other girl named Shaneequa about a party she had been at the night before.....I could hear EVERYTHING. This goes on for about 5 minutes. Finally I get transfered to the supervisor. I'll be damned if it wasn't Shaneequa Let's just say there were a lot of "Girrrr" and "OH no he didn" and "UUhhhhh HHuuhhhh" thown around in the conversation. It's pretty much that way in every and I mean EVERY city office here. We also pay local earnings taxes three times as business owners....not fun.

I'm not saying anyone should shirk the system here. Building codes are there for a reason. But my problem is the electrician running and telling the building inspector something he had no right to share. Why does he care what the shop is getting used for? He is having the work he performed signed off on, nothing more. From a liability standpoint he can always deny he knew it was going to be used for woodworking if something were to happen. Was there a contract stating that electrical work was being performed on a shop that was to be used to woodworking? Probably not. More than likely the estimate and invoice read something like "install 3 new outlets in a shop or outbuilding." And if it read more than that he is an idiot.....less is always more

That is quite disgraceful! It would never happen here...............................















.............. because no fucker ever answers the damn phone!

[scotties22]

Calling is sssoooooo much safer than actually driving down to a city office here. They are ALL and I mean ALL in the Gheto

[SmokeyBert]

and crack a match. Voila.

Ah the mental images..

[OldCorps]

"I'm not saying anyone should shirk the system here.

Why not? We've been allowing the government to make unilateral decisions for far too long now. Some laws make sense and are rational... others do not. If a person has his/her shop in an apartment building, or in his/her home in a crowded development, then some rules would necessarily be just in order to protect other people—however—I would defy anyone with even a partial brain to justify most of the ridiculous requirements placed on macgregorpipes. This is what comes of allowing a government to tell us what's best for us. I guess I'm just too old to have a bunch of whiney do-gooders with no common sense telling me what I can and can't do. Dust covers on electrical outlets?; only certain types of lights allowed?; absurd. Soon they'll be telling y'all you aren't allowed to have any machines or tools with sharp edges because you might cut yourselves.

“One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail