POTD was more or less finishing up installing a Mr. Heater Maxx 125,000 BTU heater in my shop. Few day project; almost can't wait for winter now! I posted some photos of my original install which I redid. Stupid me, the really important thing was getting the vent stack through the roof at a valley in the steel panels. Dropped the heater, projected the vent hole I'd cut in the shop ceiling up to the roof, then moved over to the center of a valley. Drilled a hole through from below, set a cardboard template of the hole on the roof and cut through with a Roto-zip. Pulled the roof panel screws, lifted the steel and applied a generous amount of roofing cement around the hole. Also covered the top of the flashing with roof cement. Set the flashing in place, dropped the roof panel over the flashing, fine adjusted the flashing position and screwed it in place. Fed the vent pipe through the hole and marked a new through-hole position on the shop ceiling (moved it about 4"). Cut a patch piece of steel to cover up my "oops" in the shop ceiling.
These aviator snip turned at a 90 are WONDERFUL for working from below. I'm cutting the hole in the shop ceiling for an electrical junction box for the heater's power and thermostat wiring. Believe these are from Midwest Products.
Once the heater was in place, it was time to run the 1/2" black pipe for propane. I finished the walls in the shop by studding out the walls on 2' center with sections that fit between the poles. Two foot by 6" thick fiberglass was stapled in place, then finished the walls with 7/16" OSB. Poor choice of fastener on my part at the time, used 2 1/2" sinkers shot from my Bostich air nailer. Sure wish I'd have used screws! I pulled a panel for routing the black pipe, wanted it to exit/enter the building through the center of a perlin.
I didn't think of it at the time, but when the barn was originally built in 1992, the builder DID NOT use mouse guard on the bottom of the exterior panels. Well, mice got into the wall and pulled all of the insulation off the paper up to 6' high. So, step back and reinsulate the wall, and install a mouse guard strip on the bottom of the outside wall. The insulated wall is 32' long, so I'll be pulling more sheets of OSB this fall and winter.
Mice chewed through 1/2" thick foil-backed styrofoam and had a nice path up and over the skirt boards
I picked up a hand pipe threader off eBay probably 10 years ago, it came with 1/2" and 3/4" dies. I needed a 15" length to go through the outside wall; Menards had 12" and 18". I'd never used the die before and was wondering how the heck I'd hold in square to the end of the pipe. Then it dawned on me I was about to try threading backwards. The die holder has a bushing with a hole a shade larger than the OD of the pipe. So, feed the bushing over the pipe and ratchet away. Threaded the 1/2" black pipe very easily.
Hooked up a temporary 100 lbs. tank and as you can see in the photo, BLUE FLAMES! I am VERY pleased by the noise level too. It makes about as much noise as my drill press, will notice it when it kicks on but won't have to crank up the radio. Sure glad I went with 125,000 BTU instead of 85,000. It's over double the size of what the shop needs, but I plan on leaving the temp at 45 F. These should heat things up to 55 - 60 in less than a half-hour. Didn't show a picture of it, but the thermostat is a Google Nest thermostat-E. It's a set-back thermostat on steroids. Yeah, yet another manual to read.
It lives!
The brass tube/clear tubing is for a manometer. The heater came with jets and a regulator for natural gas. It also had a propane conversion kit. That requires replacing the regulator spring and setting the output pressure to 10" of water. Did that with a some brass tubing and a length of plastic hose. Fill a portion of the tubing with water, loop it down/up like a sink trap and mark the level. Then mark a line 5" above and below, fire up the heater and adjust the regulator.
Next step is having an additional propane tank set. I had my dust collector under where the heater is, but that's been moved to the opposite end of the ducting. Probably going to move it again as it's quite loud. Will likely knock a hole through the wall at the left side of the heater and move the dust collector to the other side of that wall. I use a remote control called "The Long Ranger" which switches the 220V circuit to the dust collector. Will just need to keep the receiver on the warm side of the shop. It's going to be so nice to work in the shop this winter. Standing in bibs at 20 F was getting a little old.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce
