Maintaining humidity level

[Alan Berezin]

Hey all:

I've been mostly lurking in the backround as a newbie sawdust generator. Ive even built a few things. Included a pic of a builtin I am on the tail end of finishing ( just need the top trim and finish the center doors).

Anyway, I had a question about maintaining the humidity level of your shop. Im currently working in my garage. In Austin, Tx, it gets pretty humid so wood that is at, perhaps, 8% moisture will absorb moisture. It is irritating to bring home some wood, joint it, and a few weeks later it is no longer straight (I am slow on some of my projects).

On the builtin shown in the picture, I got lazy and used pre-glued-up poplar panels for my draw fronts. They were purchased from a AC'd bigbox and were nice and flat. By the time I cut, routed, drilled, and sprayed them, they had warped :mad:

Do most people just deal with changing moisture levels or do they AC their shops?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Many people use Dehumidifiers when no HVAC is available.

Most folks let the wood acclimate to their shop before cutting it.

Nice cab.

[Howard Acheson]

The key is to acclimate ANY wood you get to the environment of your shop. In other words, bring the wood home and stack and sticker it until it gets to the equilibruim moisture content relating to the relative humidity of the shop. This can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks depending on the difference in relative humidity where you bought it and the relative humidity of your shop.

Only after it has acclimated, should you begin to machine it. And even then, it's best to machine it slightly oversize and again let it acclimate for a couple of days. Be sure to take an equal amount of wood off both sides or you will get warping.