Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello to all. This is my first post. I'm interested in building an acoustic guitar (doh!). I live in FL, which if you don't know, is fairly... wet... I'm in Tampa, which is slightly drier than average for Florida.. But still we are talking about 50%+ humidity, year around. I have no options. The only space available is the garage. The doors are open OFTEN.

How do I handle the wood? Can I build a kiln and pull the wood out to work on it, or what do I do?

Do you have a closet indoors that has an A/C vent? If so, you could store your wood in there. The conditioned air should have lower humidity than the garage.

That might take care of storage. I think the humidity-critical parts of the process are gluing the sound board and back together and then gluing the top and back to the sides. Maybe you have room to do these operations indoors?

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

If your guitar is living in that environment all the time then you won't have a problem, it is the changes that are the problem. Dave Bland and a some other guys live in Florida so maybe they will pipe in and help you out!

Shane

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Canada

Gee, I wish it was 50% average RH here where I live, more like 80-90% year round on the "wet" coast.

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Don't forget that your wood will need time to become acclimated to your humidity before you work it, since suppliers would likely ship it from a drier environment, though the risk is somewhat lessened going from drier to wetter.

Pat

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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I live Port Richey pretty close to Tampa.I keep my wood inside at 45% and just take it out to the garage where my power tools are and right back in. Also spray outside only when the RH is good. Future plans are to bust a hole in my garage wall and install a AC unit and to build a proper spray booth off the garage with explosion proof fan. It's pretty humid here in the summer and I've had some blushing problems spraying outside in the past.Good luck with your garage shop.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I live in Englewood FL. and the humidity is always too high. My shop in process is an existing 30x50 CBS building with three roll-up overhead doors. Running two dehumidifiers and or the AC I can keep the shop at 45%, that is until the wind blows, POW 70%, the reason is of course air infiltration. Garage doors suck! I am in the process of walling off all three doors which seems like a sad story but it will give me a separate area for the dust producing machines and more wall space. So the point of the story is make sure you can really seal off the garage before you try to control the humidity or for that matter the temperature air leaks are expensive. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thanks for all the comments. One of the things I love about the garage is feeling like I am outside... So I loathe to wall it off, but I came to the same conclusion last night. I think I'd have to wall it off if I wanted to be proper. Its not practical to take things in and out.. and I'm going to need to apply finishes, put things in jigs to dry, etc...

The costs are overwhelming.. I was constantly working with wood as a kid. But its been a few years since I really did anything serious.. so I'm getting re-aquainted with wood by building a desk and chest of drawers for my daughters. I find myself needing many tools, including a real table saw.. Sadly, walling the garage and buying a minimal amount of tools and wood is going to run into the thousands.

Someone mentioned that old people move to florida with all their good tools, just to die. So I should be able to find some cheap tools. But the problem is that old people love Craftsman, despite the fact that Craftsman stopped making nice tools back in the 70's. My dad.. LOVES craftsman. Every year he buys a new craftsman cordless drill and brags about how cheap it was. Meanwhile, I've been using my Dewalt for 8 years, and my Porter Cable for 5.

How much wood are you talking about? For a small amount of guitar sets, you can build a drying box. This is just a sealed box large enough to hold your wood, with a lightbulb in it to warm it, and keep it dry inside. You can keep the top and back in there as you work on things. I put the light bulb at the bottom, and some expanded metal above it that I can stack the wood on.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

I'm planning to build furniture too. It'd be nice to just have the shop ready since I have limited time...

I live in San Diego and my humidity is 55-70% all the time since I live near
the ocean. A bit too moist. I bought a dehumidifier from Sears that allows
you to set a humidity level. Even though I do most of the work in humid
conditions, I do all the gluing of the braces and putting the box together in
the room. with the dehumidifer. So a week before gluing braces and putting
the box together. I close that door to that room and drop the humidity and
leave the wood in there. Control the room to 45%. Once the box is glued up
and stable I don't care if the door opens and the humdity rises a bit. The
key is to make sure the braces and box are glued together around 45-50%
So when I am carving a neck or inlaying etc. The room is typically 55-65%

Andy

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com