Shop Apparel... What Do You Wear?

[benlilly1]

Why not do your leather work in the house? I couldn't stand being that cold and trying to do leather. My work table is in my office/computer room.

[Chief31794]

I have 2 heaters for Winter Time and 2 Air Conditioners for the summer (deep south), I don't like being uncomfortable, I had a couple of heaters that weren't very good, get one with enough BTU's to heat the area. Some of the Ceramic Tube types are pretty good. I dress in Jeans and Flannel Shirt in the Winter and in Shorts and T-Shirt in the summer. I have aprons (I get the outdoor Bar-B-Que types) and I usually use them when dying.

Chief

[Sylvia]

Benlilly: Because the only area left to work leather is the living room and I got tired of having leather shavings and stuff all over. (The office is fully of my husband's stuff and my music room was taken over by him as well.) Besides I smoke inside the house but not in the garage.

I did use a nice fat yellow extension cord for the heater but it's still doesn't do much heating. Check on the uncoiling, I'll be sure to do that. One thing about it being cold out there... I don't piddle about much. I get what I need done and retreat to the house. So far this piece of leather has been cased for 4 weeks. One casing, covered over with 3mm thick plastic. It's just now getting almost too dry to work, luckily the tooling is done... it's all finish work now.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Sylvia

[Beaverslayer]

The heater you are using does not have sufficient BTU's to heath such a large area. What you can do, is hang a tarp so as to make a smaller area, kind of like a small room. Have it set up in a corner so it's against the two corner walls, then the heater may keep up better.

[dirtclod]

Insulate your work space with as much as will fit. I have 3 1/2 in the walls and 10 inches in the celeing. I heat with a kersine heater and my shop is 24 x 36. It get up to around 50 degrees on a real cold day. Or you can get some Aritics the black lined ones from Carhart, bibs is what i have and you will stay warm. Change your socks pretty regular and wear over shoes your feet will stay warm to. Your feet sweat a lot more than you think even it's really cold.

[oldtimer]

You need to insulate and heat your workspace - or - move inside to your living quarters!

[Sylvia]

The garage is insulated, just not heated. In fact, I think part of the issue is that once the garage gets cold, it retains the cold instead of warming up during the day. I've considered the Tarp thing to make the heated area smaller maybe I'll revisit that idea. It's not too bad today.

Thanks everyone for the ideas and comments. It really helped.

[two crows]

I always wear bib overalls as you can tell in my pic. A cold work area is not good, all these coments are good. You need to warm the place up, its hard to work if your bundled up like a eskimo. GET SOME HEAT IN THERE. Its suposed to be fun not torture... mj

[Double U Leather]

Sylvia...I feel for you. My old shop was in the big garage. I tried to enclose an area with plastic tarp to keep some heat in the close proximity of where I was working. Didn't work too well. At that time, I worked in Carhart's constantly. Wasn't much fun. Thankfully, I didn't have the volume of orders I do now. My shop now is about 12' x 25' ish, and separate from the garage. When it gets real cold (I live in Colorado) I run a couple of electric heaters. To take the early morning chill off, I'll fire up the propane heater for a while. Yea...propane heaters, coiled extension cords, fumes, etc., are probably not up to OSHA standards, but I used to ride bulls so I'm not really too afraid. I do what it takes to work for me. I will not work cold and miserable. If I wanted to do that, I'd sign on to dig ditches or punch cows.

[renegadelizard]

Since I moved most of my leather stuff out in the garage I've been mighty cold. And after 4+ years I finally got to buy a few new pieces of clothing and retired to the bin things that have been tie dyed and mended to death just so they wouldn't look so stained up and worn out. But now I have to wonder... what does every one else wear in the shop?

Plain old clothes that is already stained and half worn out?

Do any of you wear an apron?

What about coveralls or Big overalls?

Since I am about to freeze to death out there (it's currently 33*F in my shop) I'm thinking a pair of insulated coveralls would be nice ....or at least some insulated bibs.

Suggestions?

My shop is inside, so most of the time, and this is a scary visual, im sitting around in my skivies or gym shorts...nothing to ruin then with the occasional dye splatter, and leather dust from sanding washes off pretty easy...if you have to work outside, concentrate on keeping your feet and head warm...i could work outside in short as long as my feet and bald head were warm...I would seriously consider smoking in the garage and moving the leather shop back inside...

Edited December 11, 2012 by renegadelizard