I have a Shapeoko 5 in my garage that is not heated. I live in upstate NY, and wondering if there is anything I should do to Winterize my Shapeoko 5 over the winter. Always believe in preventive maintenance.
Do you have a water-cooled spindle, or any other add-ons that might be affected by the cold?
Will you want to use it over the winter, or is it put away until spring?
Do you get condensation in the garage?
No water cooler spindle and I will be just storing it away until the spring. Wasn’t sure if should grease and/or oil anything or any other winter type preventive maintenance. I will at least cover it up as not sure if will get any condensation due to high humidity in the North East.
I would just wipe down any steel surfaces with some light oil, but leave enough so it feels oily. For example the kind of oil you find for air tools. Check it maybe once a month, if there’s any sign at all of corrosion wipe it down again.
In the spring thoroughly wipe down again to remove excess oil, but no need to strip the surfaces with cleaner, EXCEPT the collet / nut / receiver on the spindle / router should be completely cleaned.
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Sounds good. Thank you.
Maybe a breath able fabric covering would help. I am in the North East as well and a temperature change and humidity can soak items.
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If you use it when cold some people report that they get initialization problems. The oil can freeze but after the machine warms up the problems go away.
I used to go to Rochester NY for Kodak. It gets very cold up there and the snow would drift up to the second story windows of the corporate apartments we would stay in. It is not Buffalo but close in the snowfall. The worst part was not the snow but the black ice at night when the road would thaw during the day and then freeze up at night. I loved going to Buffalo and over to Niagara Falls and going to Toronto. I went to a lot of museums in the finger lakes region. My favorite was the Curtis Air Museum. In the old days you could go to the wineries and they gave you all the samples you wanted. Eventually they limited the samples due to the windy roads and people having too much free wine. The best grape juice I ever had was at the Bully Hill Winery. Just plain grape juice but man it was good. You make me shiver just thinking about Rochester in the winter.
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