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Humidification Challenge - Arizona
http://mowrystrings.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=29561
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Author:  NWflyonly [ Wed Oct 20, 2010 8:58 am ]
Post subject:  Humidification Challenge - Arizona

I live in Sedona, AZ and I don't have the ability to humidify my shop which is one bay of my garage. I would like to set up some kind of humidification system for my building. One thought I had was to build a humidity controlled storage closet and keep my projects in there when I wasn't working on them but I struggle with that approach. Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts?

Author:  Laurent Brondel [ Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Humidification Challenge - Arizona

Insulation.
There's no easy solution to RH control. The problem with your idea is when you get the parts out to build, if the RH is too low, you may see cracks appearing (especially with brittle woods) and parts drying out too much, possibly distorting.

Author:  Mark Fogleman [ Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Humidification Challenge - Arizona

You can get a small automatic evaporative room humidifier for cheap. Set it for your target RH and refill it every couple of days once everything is stable. I would stay away from the Ultrasonic or cool mist type as they make a mess (unless you use distilled water) and create a possible health hazard with nasty stuff growing in the water getting nebulized into the air and going into your nose and lungs.

Author:  Rod True [ Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Humidification Challenge - Arizona

The question you have to ask yourself is; "Where will my instruments live when they are finished?" This will tell you what your target RH should be.

Are you building just for yourself? Will they stay in Arizona most of their life? Are you building for others?

You want your RH to be set slightly lower than the target living conditions. Slight swelling of the wood is better than shrinking. Cracks are a pain to fix.
Now I don't know the weather paterns in Arizona but my guess is the RH is pretty stable for most of the year.? If this is the case and your instruments are staying at home, just build them and you'll be fine. If you have big swings in RH over the course of the year, you'll want to build your guitars to some average RH level and then you'll have to keep a humidifier in the case for the low RH seasons.

So, once you answer these questions, you'll be able to figure out what you need to do. There is investment involved with building instruments, even at the hobby level and RH should be up there at or very near the top of the list.

Author:  NWflyonly [ Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Humidification Challenge - Arizona

I'm just building for myself so I won't worry about it I just won't take the gits out of state. I appreciate the input and maybe one day I'll set up some humidification. Thanks again!

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