Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Oct 05, 2006 01:53am | #1

   Joe,

   First of all, unless you have a very tightly sealed building and sophisticated humidity controls, the humidity in your shop will be whatever it wants to be, although you can push it up or down a bit with heating and air conditioning possibly combined with humidifiers and dehumidifiers.

   The concept of an ideal humidity for a shop is a myth, as is the concept that there is an ideal moisture content for wood.  You can build perfectly good furniture in the Pacific Northwest during the rainy season with wood having a high moisture content and you can build equally good furniture in a New England shop during 20 below weather in the dead of winter when the humidity and the moisture content of the wood are just a few points above zero.  If the furniture is properly designed and built, a piece built in one extreme of environment will be able to go to the other extreme without any problems.

   What you need to strive for is maintaining a relatively constant humidity level in the shop from week to week.  It can be drier in the winter and wetter in the summer if that is what the local weather dictates, but it is sudden day to day swings that make woodworking difficult because then the wood will then be moving as you work with it.

   So don't worry about your shop's humidity levels other than trying to keep them relatively stable.  Turning on the heat or the air conditioning only when you are in the shop would not be a good idea for instance.  

   Whatever is comfortable for you to work in is fine for the wood.  As long as you maintain a fairly even relative humidity, store your wood in the shop, and allow new wood to adjust to your shop's humidity before you use it, the actual numbers mean very little.

   John White

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   Edited 10/4/2006 6:55 pm ET by JohnWW

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   Edited 10/5/2006 2:02 pm ET by JohnWW

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   Edited 10/5/2006 2:23 pm ET by JohnWW

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   Edited 10/5/2006 5:42 pm ET by JohnWW

   
   

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   Edited 10/9/2006 6:14 pm ET by JohnWW