So I’m at the point of having to bring my Onefinity indoors for the winter. I live in Ontario, Canada and don’t have a heated shop. My set up is somewhat portable as my Onefinity is on the QCW / Rolling Folding Stand. I was planning on trying to roll the entire unit up to my house and then carry it sideways into my basement. That is not going to happen as the until is just way too heavy to handle, especially after just having hand surgery a week ago.
So my question is whether or not I can get away with leaving the QCW, rails with stepper motors out in the shop for the winter and just bringing in my monitor and the control box. I know there are a lot of folks in the group in a similar situation as I am, so I’m hoping to get some feedback as to what you are all doing. Thanks in advance!
I’m planning on storing it. It’s been in the shop since April up until tonight. I just figured with all of the cold weather coming, it was best to bring it in the house. My main concern at the moment is those stepper motors. I thought about wrapping them and putting in some of those little packs you mentioned. I just wasn’t sure if the cold itself would bother the motors? Most of my tools stay in the shop all year round but this is a little more delicate than a lot of the tools.
Like a lot of electronics their lower storage temperature is likely -20ºC. I’m also in Ontario and I know we get below that at times. However, I personally doubt a -30ºC night would matter. If it really did Onefinity would have to be careful about when they receive and ship stuff in winter, etc.
They can be removed if you really want to. Or you could dismantle the CNC back to the way you got it and bring in a few 50lbs parts. I do believe though that humidity is the biggest threat and you can mitigate that.
I think for this winter that I’ll dismantle the rails and bring them in. The foldable table can stay out there for the winter. I def don’t want to have to do this every year, so I’m thinking of building a specific room in my shop dedicated to the CNC. It would make it much easier to heat just a small area vs a huge “tin can”. Thanks for the input!
I’m here in Ontario too and also work in an unheated shop. However, my machine is inside an enclosure with a 90 watt incandescent bulb on as soon as the temperature drops to 0° or thereabouts. Seems to be working just fine so far, wafts of warm air whenever I open the enclosure door and no trouble with the machine operating so far. BTW, this is the same system I’ve been using for more than 20 years with my finishes,glues , Waterstones and anything else prone to freezing. They all go into a cabinet with a lightbulb that stays on for the winter. I’ve considered using a propane heater but concerns about carbon monoxide and moisture have turned me away. I have a friend whose shop is heated with a radiant heater powered by propane that is nice and cosy but his tank is outdoors.
