High humidity workshop

[Greg Magone]

I am finally ready to get back into woodworking again, and had a question.

I will be setting up my workshop in Seattle, WA. The humidity level will be around 100% for quite a bit of the winter. How will this affect the woodworking that I do?

Obviously, the wood will move and change when I bring it into the house. Does this cause a significant problem and how do woodworkers handle it?

(Please - serious replies only and preferrably from people with experience in similiar environments. Guessing doesn't help.)

[Frank Drew]

Greg,

Here in Virginia we have high summertime humidity to go with the heat; I eventually installed a.c. in my shop to deal with both and never had reason to regret the decision. I'm a firm believer in workplace temp/humidity control, certainly if involves woodworking.

With your high humidity in the winter, a small de-humidifier might be just the thing you need, and it could have the side benefit of throwing off a bit of heat. Instead of using the collection pan, which only holds a limited amount of water, you might consider snaking a garden hose out of your shop.

As for your specific question about subsequent wood movement when the finished piece travels from a very humid shop to an indoors environment with air conditioning or central heat.... yes, it most likely will move, with attendant unhappiness all around.

[David Keller NC]

Greg - I'm in NC, which is close to that humidity in the summer. I think the issue you're going to have is when your furniture or other woodworking project is finished and brought into a house. The relative humidity in a heated/cooled house is generally in the 30% range, sometimes lower, and I suspect you're going to have some serious movement issues if you build with wood in equilibrium with 100% r.h.

The other big problem you're going to have is protecting your tools. Even with heavy coatings of wax or one of the lighter oils, they'll rust. Cosmoline is proven to keep that from happening, but it's heavy, greasy, smelly stuff, and really not suited for day-to-day maintenance of working tools - it's better for long-term storage of tools.

If at all possible, you will be a lot better off to include humidity control in your workshop plans.

[Frank Drew]

Very important point David brings up -- there's nothing so depressing as rusting tools and machinery. DAMHIK :(.

[Brian Tax]

Not sure what part of Seattle you are in, my garage shop hovers around 70% humidity in the winter. If you have a concrete floor, I would suggest painting it with a epoxy garage floor paint to keep moisture from ground water from seeping through. It helped in my case. I also use a couple those damp rid crystal collector cups.

[Peter Scoma]

+1 on the rusting. Even multiple layers of paste wax doesnt keep my tools rust free in my garage shop. Use camelia oil and be sure to give each tool a quick wipe before use so as to not stain your workpiece.

PS

[Brad Wood]

I'm a bit south of you guys and my garage is about 80% during the winter. I got a unit from LG that is designed for temps below 40 or so (make sure to check the rating of the one you consider buying, you want to make sure you get one for cold temps).

I pull about a gallon a day out of my garage. When we first moved in, I had the garage filled with boxes and we didn't know the garage was so damp. All the boxes were almost limp due to the moisture they absorbed. Once I got the LG running a couple days, they dried right up.

I keep the garage at 40%, which is right around where the inside of the house is during the winter.
Someone posted here, or at another site, criticizing the electricity consumption (and cost of said consumption), but you have to deal with what you have to deal with. The trade off is to have a damp garage where everything molds and rusts.

[Peter Quinn]

I have a basement shop in New England, humidities natural range in the summer is around 80%. I have used a variety of dehumidifiers, I recently got a real one. Thermastor Sante Fe, takes the humidity out and keeps it out. i don't need to cool the space as the temperature below grade rarely goes above 72 degrees, but the humidity stays at 38% with the Sante Fe running.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I had the joints on a project let loose 'cause of the humidity changes causing wood movement.

Get a good De-humidifier. They are worth the money.

[Frank Drew]

Peter,

Is your de-humidifier in the shop itself, and does is throw off much heat?

[Neil Bosdet]

I am finally ready to get back into woodworking again, and had a question.

I will be setting up my workshop in Seattle, WA. The humidity level will be around 100% for quite a bit of the winter. How will this affect the woodworking that I do?

Obviously, the wood will move and change when I bring it into the house. Does this cause a significant problem and how do woodworkers handle it?

(Please - serious replies only and preferrably from people with experience in similiar environments. Guessing doesn't help.)

Greg,

Will you be heating your shop? If so, you will lower your humidity level as well.

[Greg Magone]

Thanks for your suggestions.

No, I will not be heating the garage. It's a rental unit and doesn't have a built in heater. I could use a portable electric heater, but that adds a lot of cost to my electric bill ($100 - $200 a month) for little benefit.

I will look into a dehumidifier. My cardboard boxes are also limp. I don't want things to rust out there.

[Peter Quinn]

Peter,

Is your de-humidifier in the shop itself, and does is throw off much heat?

Yea Frank, the unit is in the shop. The old ones made a lot of heat like a window AC unit, this one is pretty cool. Its built more like an HVAC set up. it has a serious condensate pump that blows the water out side or into the waste line. It moves a lot of air so its a bit noisier than the little ones I had, but it doesn't seem to make much heat.

Today the RH in my house is 78%, in my shop after three days of rain, 38% and holding.

[Frank Drew]

Thanks for the followup, Peter; sounds like a very good piece of gear.

[Dave Cav]

I live about 30 miles north of Seattle. My shop is in a metal sided pole building, and I only run the propane heater when I'm in the shop. The RH outside in the wintertime tends to run between 65 and 75% in the winter, even when it's raining. My house isn't air conditioned, but in the winter the inside RH tends to run about 45%. My shop building RH is probably about the same or a little drier than outside. When I buy hardwood for a project I normally sticker and stack it inside the shop for at least a month before I start cutting it. I haven't had any significant problems with wood shrinkage after completing a project and taking it inside the house.

Yes, rust on tools can be a serious problem. The biggest problem is with condensation. Since I don't heat my shop on a regular basis, my tools can get really cold. (I also have a 12" metal lathe and milling machine.) The problem is when we have a warm, wet "pineapple express" front come through in the middle of the winter. The temperature can swing from 35* to 60* in eight hours, and the warm weather is VERY humid. That warm wet air hits the cold tools and the condensation just runs off them. I keep my machine tools sprayed down with light oil, and I keep my table saw, jointer, thickness planer, etc heavily waxed. I usually use something like Boeshield. What is worse, however, are my hand tools. If I don't keep my hand planes and chisels oiled and/or waxed they can rust in a hurry, and if you don't keep and eye on them the rust can get ahead of you. I try to make it a habit to take all the planes out of the cabinet several times over the winter to check them and wipe them down with an oily rag. I also keep camphor blocks in the tool cabinet; it's an old trick that's supposed to prevent rust; the camphor evaporates and it's supposed to deposit a rust resisting film on the metal. I guess it works, sort of; it's cheap and may help so I try to keep a few blocks in the tool cabinets.