Thread: kerosene Heater in paint area?

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It is getting pretty hard to keep my shop warm these days and a friend of mine offered to lend me his kerosene heater. Does anyone know if it is a good idea to use those while doing body and paint work? Would hate to end up with a bunch of fisheye from it.

Originally Posted by Mr Smith

It is getting pretty hard to keep my shop warm these days and a friend of mine offered to lend me his kerosene heater. Does anyone know if it is a good idea to use those while doing body and paint work? Would hate to end up with a bunch of fisheye from it.

You don't want to do that!! It's an open flame heater, and the fumes are laden with kerosene residue and will put an oily film on everything. If you have to use the heater while doing your body work you will need to pay extra special attention to cleaning your surface before you paint.

i would also be concerned that some of the paints are flamable. with a open flame heater you might get a explosion. also kerosene heaters are famous for putting soot in the air.

I wasn't going to use it while painting but thanks for the conformation. I turned him down when he offered it but after being out there with long johns, my wood stove burning and my small electric heater running and still watching my breath turn to steam I almost reconsidered.

know how you feel. have a wood stove heating my garage too. can get mighty chilly.

I put a natural gas heating system in my shop. I like it at about 68 to 70.

Originally Posted by Bruce lee

I put a natural gas heating system in my shop. I like it at about 68 to 70.

That is about how I like it too. I have a propane furnace that I pulled out of a mobile home that I should get hooked up. the problem is that my shop is a metal building with only a little insulation on the roof. so I would hate to pay to have that installed then just have the heat escape through the walls. But I don't want to wait 4 or 5 months for it to warm up before I can paint either. And of course I would have to shut that down too while painting.

Originally Posted by Mr Smith

And of course I would have to shut that down too while painting.

As long as the furnace is not in your segregated paint area and you don't have a cold air return pulling from that area you would be fine to heat with the indirect propane furnace, blowing heated air into the paint area. The concentration of paint fumes has to get very high to be flammable, anyway, and you will be ventillating the area to clear fumes, right? Your concern about heat escaping through the non-insulated metal walls is the major issue - I have the same thing in my barn.

Originally Posted by rspears

As long as the furnace is not in your segregated paint area and you don't have a cold air return pulling from that area you would be fine to heat with the indirect propane furnace, blowing heated air into the paint area. The concentration of paint fumes has to get very high to be flammable, anyway, and you will be ventillating the area to clear fumes, right? Your concern about heat escaping through the non-insulated metal walls is the major issue - I have the same thing in my barn.

My shop is not divided at all and it is only 900sq feet. I suppose it would help to pull the air in from outside instead of the shop.

I am involved in heating sales.One of the cheapest heating improvements is insulation.Mr Heater sells a ceiling hung infrared that is propane or natural gas that will handle 500 to 600 square ft and is the price range of $349.00.The key to infrared is it heats objects and not spaces.So it is heating you,the car,etc.On balance if you spending less with heating you end up correcting that intermediate step and end up buying what you really need anyways.So insulate and buy a heater to do the job.Face it,what you don't spend on insulation,you spend on payments for fuel.

When I worked at the body shop we would not even allow a diesel car or truck to be started anywhere near the work area or paint shop. The fumes would create all kinds of problems with cars we were painting. Kerosene is about the same in a stove, I would imagine.

Don

Whatever type heat you are using....rule of thumb says that the metal you are painting should be the same temperature as the air.
If metal is too cold, paint won't adhere and just run down. I have a hot air furnace in my shop and I don't run it until I am in the shop. So if I go to paint something like a small bracket I will heat it with my heat gun to take the chill from the metal.
For doing big stuff , it's best to run the heat at a low temp for a good day or so to get all the metals warmed up.

Originally Posted by Mr Smith

My shop is not divided at all and it is only 900sq feet. I suppose it would help to pull the air in from outside instead of the shop.

My barn is divided into a wood/work shop area 20x30, and a concrete floor garage area 30x30, equal to your space of 900sqft. When I got ready to paint my frame I cleaned out one 10' bay at the end, top to bottom and put up a plastic "curtain wall" to try to seal that area from the rest of the building. Then I pressure washed that area, top to bottom to try to clear it of dust and spider nests. I put two banks of furnace filters beneath the roll-up doors and an exhaust fan in the wall to clear fumes. Still I had a bout of fighting fisheyes in my primer. I had comments from people here regarding the contents of the building, like not even having a can of WD40 anywhere near the barn - an approach that simply does not work for me. I had friends around here that told me to "...roll it outside on a calm morning, wet down the gravel and shoot it!" I will admit I did exactly that with a few small parts that I had forgotten to do, when the spray area was re-allocated to assembly.

My point here is if you're looking for the closest you can get to a professional job on your car you might want to think about your area designated for painting, and especially the proximity of aerosol sprays that may have silicone or other nasties, and any other work you may do in the barn as you approach spray time, like spraying insecticide at the wasps flying around (yes, I did that ). There's not much more frustrating than getting it all ready, laying down a perfect pass and seeing those fisheyes form

I have a natural gas forced air furnace, would love to switch over to radiant ceiling heat. If I ever build a new one it will be under floor heat!!! What a great system for a shop!!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

I have a natural gas forced air furnace, would love to switch over to radiant ceiling heat. If I ever build a new one it will be under floor heat!!! What a great system for a shop!!

Yep, I wish I would have thought about putting a resistance loop in my concrete, or an HDPE loop for glycol/water. We don't have a natural gas supply to our area, so we're all electric with some wood stove backup. My concrete floor sweats something terrible when the temps swing