Official Luthiers Forum!

Well, I guess a new poster at least. I've been reading the forum for about a month. You guys are incredible luthiers. I hope to start my first guitar in the next couple of months, but first I plan on building a workbench. I've done some woodwork (small things) and I've been playing guitar for about 15 years so neither are new to me. So I figure why not put them together!

So I'll start off as a newbie should and ask a question! :)

I've read on the forums and I know from other woodwork that wood needs to acclimate (spelling?) to the workshop. With other woodworking projects I haven't had problems with humidity etc, of course they've not had to be as accurate as a guitar. My "shop" is actually my "garage". It's neither heated nor cooled. So, here's my question. How do you other garage guys handle temp/humidity changes? Do you saw and do dirty work in your shop and glue up in the house after the wood as acclimated to the house? That was my plan btw.

Thanks, great forum!

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

Welcome to the OLF! I know humidity is an oft discussed matter... I have a dehumidifier in the shop. Interestingly, I don't have a gauge for determining the RH of the air, I just time how fast the first beer goes down. If it goes down in less than 5 minutes, it is dry...    SteveCourtright38968.5193981482

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Welcome to the forum. Depending on where you live you may need to do nothing to control the RH in your shop. When I lived and worked in Brazil I had a dehumidifier and controled the RH to 50%. I have been in Colorado for a little over 5 years and until this summer never needed a humidifier or dehumidifier in my shop as I was at a constant 35% to 40% year round. This summer I plugged in my dehumidifier to get the RH down to around 40% again as we have had a humid summer. If your shop is heated than you will more than likely need to control the RH with humidifer.
Good luck!

Hi Nathan, and welcome to the OLF.
You can do some basic things to help to control humidity in your garage shop, like sealing the floor with a good epoxy sealer, and also insulating the walls. The more air-tight and water-tight you can get it the better. Some folks make use of "drying closets" that they store wood in to keep the moisture content down. As Robbie mentioned, where you are located will have a direct impact on how much you need to do to control the humidity.
You're smart to tackle this issue head-on right from the beginning, since it is so critical to successful guitar building.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Nathan,

My shop is in my garage here in central Texas. I don't have a way to control humidity either and temperature control is possible only during the cold months (close the door and turn on the space heater).

I keep all of my wood and supplies in a closet in the house. It has a heat/ac vent so it stays at a pretty constant temp and humidity all year long.

You can build in a garage-shop but you do need to be aware of the weather and what tasks you can do. For instance, if the humidity is at an extreme you probably wouldn't want to be joining tops or gluing on braces. Instead, you might want to do something that is less sensitive to humidity like side-bending or neck carving. Or build some jigs, it seems like I always have some jig that I need to make.

It seems to make the process take a little longer, but it can be done.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the hellos.

Steve
Your method is what I'm using to gauge humidity now... cept I use H2O. Gotta watch that figure :)

Robbie/Don
The garage isn't heated or cooled. It's cinder block on 4 sides. It's a 2 car in a tri-level house so there is one wall that stays fairly temperate all year. And the ceiling is well insulated becuase it's 3 the bedrooms. I'm in North Alabama and the past couple of weeks are the first since June that the temp is below 90. Winters are usually mild in the mid 30s. I guess I was hoping I could use a room in the house as a "drying closet". Then take the wood to the garage to work on it. Seems like that may put the wood into shock though :) Especially in the summer.

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

WayneC
You're post slipped in while I was replying. I'm in the same situation as you. That's the kind of information I was looking for. Although I may be able to do glueup in the house, joining will definately be done in the garage. Thanks for the ideas of neck carving and jig making. I hadn't thought of that.nathan c38968.529849537

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

Welcome to the OLF Nay,
I have a half and half shop so to speak-all my wood and a lot of tools inside,controlled at 45% rh.And the big power tools and such out in the garage.I just do what I have to out in the garage and bring it in for things like gluing up braces which has to be done in proper rh.
I hope to one day make the garage much better to work in.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Nathan, your humidity won't be too different from mine (Arkansas). My shop is a metal building. No AC and if it gets real cold, I have a torpedo type kerosene heater. So far I have no humidity control.
When I get ready to build I move the materials into the house where humidity is fairly constant, and take what I need to the shop for a session, then take it back in the house for storage. It's ok to join the back and top without humidity control.   The only operations, in my opinion, that are critical as far as humidity goes, are bracing the top and back, and attaching the top and back to the sides. I just wait till the humidity drops then take those items to the shop.   During prolonged periods of high humidity, I work on making more bridges, braces, necks, etc.   You might have to fine tune some parts at a later date as everything has some reaction to humidity change.
That said, I am planning to add a climate controlled room inside my shop over the next few months. Even when the humidity is low, it might be 98-105 in there during the summer and I sweat all over everything.

Welcome to the forum, BTW.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Welcome to the OLF Nathan, as you can see, lots of great folks ready to help in a heartbeat, best place on the WWW EH?

Have fun with your first!

Serge

Hey Nathan! How's it going!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Hi Nathan, Welcome to the OLF.

I don't have humidity or temp control either, I'm building a new shop later in the year so not much point sealing up the old shop.

I do have a hygrometer that I keep an eye on and do jobs according to what it says. I don't like the idea of drying cabinets or keeping wood in one environment and then moving it to where you're going to be working on it. Seems to me that you'd just guarantee that the wood will be moving while you're working it, how much would depend on the humidity difference between the two areas. I could be wrong on this, other people seem to get good results working this way.

[QUOTE=old man] Nathan, your humidity won't be too different from mine (Arkansas). My shop is a metal building. No AC and if it gets real cold, I have a torpedo type kerosene heater. So far I have no humidity control.
When I get ready to build I move the materials into the house where humidity is fairly constant, and take what I need to the shop for a session, then take it back in the house for storage. It's ok to join the back and top without humidity control.   The only operations, in my opinion, that are critical as far as humidity goes, are bracing the top and back, and attaching the top and back to the sides. I just wait till the humidity drops then take those items to the shop.   During prolonged periods of high humidity, I work on making more bridges, braces, necks, etc.   You might have to fine tune some parts at a later date as everything has some reaction to humidity change.
That said, I am planning to add a climate controlled room inside my shop over the next few months. Even when the humidity is low, it might be 98-105 in there during the summer and I sweat all over everything.

Welcome to the forum, BTW.

Ron[/QUOTE]

Pay attention to this man, as he knows of what he speaks. I know a successful, respected builder who has a small room built into his shop, probably 6x6'. His work stays in there, tem/humidity controlled, but it comes out into his non-heated, non-air conditioned shop for processing, gluing, drying, etc. He has no issues whatsoever. His finishes, glues, heat sensitive stuff stays in the room as well...but tools and that sort of thing are find in his shop. When I built my first with him, I was amazed at that, but it works just fine.

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