Humidity

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

Humidity

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>Lutherie >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

Stu

Posts: 2521
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

Humidity

Hello,
I have a dehumidifier which I use when the humidity is high.

But at the moment in London the humidity in my shop drops to 35/40%. What's the procedure for raising the humidity?

Thanks

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 3 2017 18:12:57

benros

Posts: 144
Joined: Aug. 27 2016

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

i use the humidifier from the german firm 'venta', which works great, if the room is not to big.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 3 2017 18:18:20

Dudnote

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 13 2007

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Stu
What's the procedure for raising the humidity?

Install an aquarium, some tropical pot plants and a waterfall with a statue of Buddha taking guitar leasons from Paco de Lucua.

_____________________________

Ay compañerita de mi alma
tú ahora no me conoces.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 3 2017 20:28:49

Njål Bendixen

Posts: 65
Joined: Aug. 25 2016

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

Boil water

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 3 2017 20:37:20

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

Do your laundry and hang it to dry in the room. Wet towels also work. That's what I did in Spain when it was hot and dry in the night. Not for the guitar but for me.

_____________________________

Foro Flamenco founder and Admin

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 3 2017 20:38:38

Leñador

Posts: 5237
Joined: Jun. 8 2012
From: Los Angeles

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

I'm surprised it gets to 35/40% in London. It gets there pretty regularly here, is that really a problem for guitars? I keep em away from windows but they are exposed......

_____________________________

\m/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 3 2017 21:43:35

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: Humidity (in reply to Leñador)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Leñador

I'm surprised it gets to 35/40% in London. It gets there pretty regularly here, is that really a problem for guitars? I keep em away from windows but they are exposed......

35/40% shouldn't be a problem if the guitar was built in a humidity controlled shop.

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 3 2017 22:21:06

Stu

Posts: 2521
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: Humidity (in reply to jshelton5040)

Thanks all.
Probably end up buying a humidifier.

Its norm pretty stable in there. But during the really hot days in London the other week it dropped to about 30/40.

By the way JShelton, its not just for my guitar (which was built in humidity controlled shop.) but for my fledgling workshop. So I'll be building in it. And have some collection of wood in there.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 7 2017 16:05:57

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Stu

By the way JShelton, its not just for my guitar (which was built in humidity controlled shop.) but for my fledgling workshop. So I'll be building in it. And have some collection of wood in there.

It's actually fairly difficult to keep the humidity within the accepted bounds (45-46%) if your shop has some size. We have both humidifier and dehumidifier but the dehumidifier gets most of the work. I suspect we are in a very comparable climate to London so you might consider the dehumidifier during hot weather since that's when the humidity gets crazy here.

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 7 2017 22:16:34

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: Humidity (in reply to jshelton5040)

quote:

35/40% shouldn't be a problem if the guitar was built in a humidity controlled shop.

exactly. below 30% is when things start to go crazy especially if its a longer period. But remember that the worst is always drastical changes. So if humidity was 80 yesterday and 40 today, then its time to wake up.
The "old masters" didnt have humidity controlled workshops, but they knew when to do what. Things went wrong when they got busy and didnt have time to use their knowledge, meaning building guitars under wrong conditions and especially under different humidity conditions. Its mostly during assembly that humidity matters the most.

_____________________________

Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 8 2017 5:50:19

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

I built a small room in my shop for days when the humidity is too high for gluing joints. It's about 4 x 8 feet and has bench and go bar deck. It cost about 60 dollars to build and it has a good quality humidifier that cost about 120 dollars.

If I turn on the humidifier it takes about 25 minutes to go from 75 to 45 and dry out all the bench wood and any other stuff in there.

Lots of makers use these kinds of rooms instead of keeping the whole shop dehumidified. I do all assembly in the room at 45-50 relative humidity religiously. Over time only keeping one small room at that level has saved at least 500 dollars per year it more.

_____________________________

https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 8 2017 7:24:29

krichards

Posts: 597
Joined: Jan. 14 2007
From: York, England

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

If you're making guitars you must control humidity in the workshop. I'm in York UK and my workshop is small (a converted garage).
I use a dehumidifier constantly, but controlled by a built-in humidistat. I set the humidity to 50% and in practice the humidifier kicks in at 48% (measured on a separate humidity meter)
So my humidity never exceeds 50 %. I don't worry about dryness. Just occasionally the humidity drops below 40% for very short periods. That's not a problem. So typically the humidity in my workshop is 45% or thereabouts.
I construct my guitars entirely in this environment and also store my wood in there. When I build a guitar I am using wood that has been stored in that environment for several years at least.
I've not had any reports of problems from my customers and I'm confident that this system works. The most important thing being the humidistat.

_____________________________

Kevin Richards

http://www.facebook.com/#!/kevin.richards.1048554

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 8 2017 8:55:49

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

Kevin,

Many people today do have the ability to control relative humidity in the total square footage of the shop, but many do not. The seasonal averages of humidity will keep your stocks of materials tools safe in most places. I would worry in equatorial regions, or in higher latitudes, but not temperate regions.

Historically as Anders pointed out artificial control of humidity was not possible, and even today some of the most important builders still don't have totally climate controlled shops. Off the top of my head I could name about 15 or 20 - It is really contingent upon where you live. The only thing that really matters is assembly on a day or in a room that is under 50 RH.

An older now retired maker who worked for 50 years told me in the mid 90's you can feel it after a while, he said you can feel the right day to brace a top. He said just wait for those days. In California there are four months in the year more or less, when you can reasonably brace a top in normal daily RH. And it was noted that Torres worked carefully at certain times of day to catch the offshore wind that brought dry inland air into the shop.

In wet countries you may want to dehumidify 24/7, but in California- Spain latitude it just a matter of waiting for the right day. If you ever go to Spain or California and live next to a chaparral cover hill side and feel the Earth drink the water out of the air you'll develop a sense for which day is right. Where I am now there is a rainy season that lasts 6 weeks and a fairly uncomfortable summer, it's like Northern Florida, not ideal and case could be made for 24/7 dehumidifying, but it is cost prohibitive with the price of energy in this country. So makers here create dry rooms and simply don't brace tops in the wet seasons. There are still about two months of the year when I can find a dry enough day to open the windows and brace in the afternoon. But I don't for uniformity sake. And when I walk in and out of the dry room I can feel the wetness in my lungs on the way out.

The shakuhachi makers do the same thing, they store the take' wood outside for years and let seasonal averages do the work. Now if I were a dealer and had tens of thousands of dollars of built instruments...that is another story.

_____________________________

https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 9 2017 1:48:32

Stu

Posts: 2521
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: Humidity (in reply to estebanana)

Interesting stuff here. Many Thanks.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jun. 10 2017 20:13:08

keith

Posts: 1108
Joined: Sep. 29 2009
From: Back in Boston

RE: Humidity (in reply to Stu)

In theory dehumidifiers should kick off when the humidity reaches the point where the operator sets. Of course that assumes the dehumidifier humidistat works within specs. It is amazing how much water is actually in the air when the humidity climbs to 60-65%. Last year I moved to Louisville KY and I have to run a dehumidifier every day during the summer months to keep the indoor humidity at 45-50%. I run it during the time I am at work as it is a little noisy ($20 Craigslist special). I usually average about a gallon of water in the tank for 10 hours operation in my average size living room in a one bedroom apartment. My first task when getting home is dumping the tank. I have found my electric bill has only increased a few dollars. I try not to run the AC for more than 30 minutes on really hot days.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 8 2017 0:53:20