Cant Glue Saga kit in the Wet

[jerryk]

Got my kit all sanded, front & back graduated, tone bars tuned - as best I could. Neck is glued on, got my 20 spool clamps ready to go... Time to glue that back on and turn this collection of parts into a musical instrument!

But wait... whats that pitter-patter on the roof? Yup, that's rain. I hear it's bad mojo to glue up instruments in high humidity conditions because wood expands. At least one luthiers website said that they keep their workshop at a constant 45-55% humidity.
And it's supposed to keep raining on & off all week.

It hasn't rained yet today - although they say it will. I don't have anything to measure RH - but the local airport does. They report the temperature & dew point in degrees C every hour. The dew point is that temperature at which the moisture in the air would
condense out to cloud or fog. These two numbers are directly convertible into humidity - for example, if they're the same, that's 100% humidity. Right now, the local airport is reporting 17/12, which means about 70% humidity.

So I guess I need to just pack up this project and save it for sunnier days... :(.

[Nevin]

The humidity outside and the humidity inside during heating season are different things. I doubt you have a problem.

[Rodney Riley]

As long as you're inside with controlled conditions. No windows open, no kids running in and out. Opening outside doors ( and as some kids do, leaving them open :) ) should be no problems. If I remember right there was a post here once about the Gibson shop. In the winter the workers would yell at anyone who opened the door to the shop. To"close the door" to keep it hot inside to give them a little more working time before the glue started setting up. If you turn the heat off or down at night, then you might want to wait.

And aren't we supposed to keep or it's suggested to keep the wooden instruments between 45-55% humidity anyway?

[Tom C]

They do sell DE-humidifiers for probably around $30.

[Erin Patterson]

In the guitar building shop I worked in we always had the dehumidifier going, set at like 48%. We also had a humidifier on the other end of the room and would have them both running at the same time if it was at all dry out. And yeah, we were pretty crazy about keeping the shop doors closed to the warehouse too.;) Thing I learned was to make sure you let you wood dry and stay in your controlled room for some time before gluing. You can get a wood probe to check on your wood now and then before you do any gluing. We had enough trouble with humidity to be careful not to glue til the wood was stable. Hard lessons to learn. :crying: Main thing is to just keep and eye on the levels and get a good hydrometer. We had a big problem once cause we had a bunch of cheap ones reading wrong!
Good luck! :)

[jerryk]

OK, I glued it. Brought the wood, the spool clamps, the Titebond into the living room yesterday, risking spousal ire. Let it all sit
for a few hours, then came in and glued. Looking good this morning....

Could have used maybe 4 more spool clamps, but I made do.