Official Luthiers Forum!

My shop is in Minnesota and it is unheated unless I'm in there working which is pretty much on weekends, unless it is so cold outside that I can't (bring myself to) afford to heat it.

So when I walk in the shop, the temp is around 20F and the magic-8-ball-acoustic-hygrometer says the humidity is 80%. As it heats up, the humidity drops. This makes sense to me.

I store my wood and guitars in process in the basement where the climate is relatively stable at 68F and 45% humidity.

Because I can't keep (or get until March) the temperature up to 68 in the shop, I want to figure out where I should try to keep the humidity for a range of temps if I don't want to horse things up when I take a project or some wood out to the shop.

I don't think I'm looking for a humidity chart. I think I'm looking for moisture content.
Can anyone point me to some useful information on this topic?

After reading a few results from Google, my eyes rolled back in my head. So I thought I'd ask some like minded people if they've come across this information yet.

Thanks

Dave

Welcome to the forum Dave / what part of minnisota are you from ? I lived " on the range" for about a year some time ago.
well I will answer your question the best that I can , leaving room for correction , as I am no expert. there are several humidities to be concerned with as well as the moisture content of the wood, most builders like to have the moisture content of the wood , some where around 8-10 % for some period of time before building with it , many builders store their wood for at least a year before using it , some masters store their wood for many years before use.it is my understanding storing the wood at a constant relative humidity of around 30 - 32 % for a considerable period of time will eventualy bring about a proper moisture content. . the rule of thumb for drying wood is one year of drying for each inch of thickness, this of course is for air dried wood.
, as far as building R.H. in the shop .I was taught a good target range of relative humidity in your shop for storage and the duration of the build is between 45% and 50% . at least that works fairly well here in the north east. jody