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| Humidity control http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=41640 |
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| Author: | PeterF [ Fri Oct 11, 2013 1:56 am ] |
| Post subject: | Humidity control |
What do you part time luthiers do about controlling humidity in your shop? I only have time to work on the weekends, so it seems a waste to heat and dehumidify the shop all week when I'm not in there. Is it ok to let it do it's own thing during the week? How do you do it? |
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| Author: | Michael.N. [ Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:55 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Humidity control |
Absolutely pointless controlling the humidity when things aren't being glued. Just a complete waste of electrons. Electrons cost money. Place the wood in the open, stickered and let it adjust to the controlled humidity for a few hours. The thin wood that we use for Guitars adjusts fairly rapidly to the humidity change. Then you can glue. Once the glue is dry you can let the humidity swing higher but just be mindful of very low RH levels. That's an easy control because you can just place a braced Top/Back into a Guitar case with a damp sponge. You need to control humidity when: Bracing Tops and Backs. Assembling the Top/Back to the sides. Gluing the Bridge. Gluing the fretboard - you may as well get it to target humidity. |
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| Author: | SteveSmith [ Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:36 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Humidity control |
I choose to control humidity 24/7 in my shop. A fair amount of my guitar wood is not thin but is split billets or boards. I also have other peoples instruments in for repair. I pretty much let the temperature swing when I'm not in there except during the winter I do have a small oil-filled electric heater set to keep the shop at about 45F. I haven't tried it but I remember reading some years ago that several builders would store the wood for their current project in a drying box that used a light bulb to keep the humidity down. |
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| Author: | Glenn LaSalle [ Fri Oct 11, 2013 7:56 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Humidity control |
I have a small shop, and unfortunately do not get to build on a consistent level. However, I have chosen to keep my shop at constant 45 RH. I do this because when I get a chance to jump in the shop, I want to start working right away, and not worry about things. I also like to keep instruments in the shop that I am working on. I have a 10x15 shop, with 9.5ft ceilings. I have a heating/air conditioning unit that does a great job, and use a dehumidfier and humidifier to control the humidity. Glenn |
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| Author: | Goodin [ Fri Oct 11, 2013 8:07 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Humidity control |
I keep a dehumidifier going constantly 24/7 in my 800 sq/ft basement shop. I have a big box store 50 pint dehumidifier hooked up to a hose that drains outside. I thought it kept my shop in the 42-45% range according to cheap cigar box hygrometers but according to my new high dollar German hygrometer I'm in about the 52% range. I want to get a 70 pint dehumidifier soon to hopefully drop down to 45% RH. I like keeping my shop at a constant RH at all times for the reason Glenn mentioned above. I don't have to think about humidity so much...just build. Also I have noticed that certain woods will take longer than a few weeks to reach equilibrium. I had some brace wood go bananas on me it seemed like months after I got it in my shop. |
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| Author: | mcgr40 [ Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:41 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Humidity control |
I have been running two dehumidifiers to keep my shop at around 45%. It does not seem to conserve much energy. I was mentally pondering trying one of those small thermo-electric dehumidifers to dehumidify a small enclosed space, say 6 feet wide by 3 feet deep and 10 feet high- a space with the go-deck inside and to keep things that were already glued cross-grain. Then maybe I could store the sensitive stuff in the dehumidifed box, and only dehumidify the whole shop at other critical times. I don't know much about the little thermo-electric dehumidifiers, however. I suspect they are related to what is in some wine coolers. They could probably keep an enclosure comfortable for the components(guitar) if sized correctly. |
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