Why does nobody talk about the coolant smell in a small shop in winter?
Three years ago, I was running a job on a VF-2 in a garage shop in Spokane when I realized the smell of the coolant was making my eyes water every time the door was shut. I started using a small fan to push air out a window crack, and it cut down on the haze and the headache by half. What's your fix for shop air when you can't open the big doors?
It's the same reason people ignore the weird smell in their car, you just get used to it until you can't. A cheap box fan in a window is my go-to for moving air when it's freezing out.
You really don't notice the smell in your own car until someone else gets in? My truck's got a faint musty thing from all the tools in the back and I smell it every time I open the door, even after two years. A box fan in a window in winter just pulls all the heat out and makes your furnace run twice as hard, seems like a waste. I'd rather crack a window a couple inches on the far side of the room to get a cross breeze without losing all the warmth. You're basically paying to heat the whole neighborhood with that fan trick.
Yeah, the "weird smell in your car" thing is so true, @the_eva. I read something about how our brains just filter out constant sensory input after a while, which is why you stop noticing a background odor or even a fan noise. That box fan trick is smart for cold air, it stops the room from feeling so stale without making a draft.