Heat for my new shop...

[Burnsie]

My father uses an outdoor wood stove with a water bladder around it (water is mixed with auto anti-freeze he picked up for almost nothing in a 55 gallon barrel from an auto scrap yard).  Water is circulated through fin tube radiator units in the shop.  Works good and all the wood mess and flame is outside behind the shop.  He will stuff the fire box full of large chunks when he is done in the evening, shuts down the dampers and it will still be holding a good bed of coals in the morning.  The shop will be cool in the morning after a cold Wisconsin winter night, but will be warm in a short amount of time once the stove is stoked back up.

[Fastltz]

i have a smaller shop as well and i use an eden pure style heater and it works awesome.

[wapitirod]

I use propane heat in my machine shop. The oil burners that use used motor oil are nice.  I've worked in shops that have had them but they are expensive and you have to have a good supply of oil.

[Shaun]

Heat my 24 x 64 shop with a water heater and 5 250ft loops of pex tubing in the slab. Super insulated the walls and ceiling and use about 400 bucks a year to heat in the Iowa winter. Too late if you've poured you floor. Next time put down insulating foam under the slab and pour in pex for the ultimate in radiant heat.

Nothing dangerous about a good airtight wood stove and dust in the air. I'd be more worried about your lungs if you don't have dust collection under control.

[JAG]

T-Man, If you hadn't left the "Sunny South" so far behind, ya'll wouldn't be in such fix!
Headed up to Sterling's tomorrow, for a short visit.
Take care and don't freeze up yonder.  BTW, it was in the 70's today!
JAG/Johnny

[Whip]

I think you will find that you need to keep it heated at least above freezing all the time, even when not using the shop.  Otherwise condensation on your equipment going back and forth between freezing and heating will cause some serious rust problems in short order.

I agree with Shaun that a good wood stove is not a concern with the dust in the shop.  You need to make sure to keep the dust under control for the sake of your lungs, heat or no heat.  A good dust collection system with ducting to each machine will keep the shop much cleaner and your lungs healthy.  Back it up with a dust filter as well for the small particles.

I have a small ceiling mounted 220 electric heater that keeps my shop at a constant 50 degrees even when I'm not around to feed the wood stove.  There are more efficient heating methods, but that little unit really does a nice job, was cheap to install, and the bills aren't bad if I'm out there burning wood.