Climate control humidity concerns

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Hello everyone,

My current shop set up is in an old house and it is not climate controlled at all.  In the winter it is the same temp as outside and in the summer it is about ten degrees warmer inside.  Be in the southeast the summers are also humid.  Last summer I ran into issues with finishing a rifle with the oil not drying and parts not fitting back.  I made the mistake of leaving the lock plate out a couple of days while the oil was drying and when I went back to it, the plate would not go in. 

So here is the question:  I have a planned project coming up that if all goes well I will be finishing it up in the dog days of summer and it will have pretty extensive silver wire inlay.  My concern is that if I install the wire while it is humid and the stock is not doubt swollen to some extent, will the shrinkage of the wood in the winter time be enough to move away from the wire and create gaps, or even release the wire.  Its not a custom order, so I can put it off until the fall.

Cory Joe Stewart

[Stoner creek]

Would you recon that gunmakers had the same climate issues during the 18th century and all of the 19th century? I would say proceed.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Would you recon that gunmakers had the same climate issues during the 18th century and all of the 19th century? I would say proceed.

no doubt they did.

[Elnathan]

Would you recon that gunmakers had the same climate issues during the 18th century and all of the 19th century? I would say proceed.

The question is: How did they solve them? Matching work to the seasons wasn't exactly an unknown concept back in the 18th century - Virtually all farmwork revolves around what time of year it is, after all. Living in the same climate and having some of the same humidity issues as Cory Joe (being too poor to run the air conditioner 24/7), I've learned that hafting axes in the spring-summer is a fool's errand and that such work is best done in the dead of winter, or the handle will loosen when the humidity drops. Probably not a good idea to just assume that they approached gunbuilding work with the same production-year-around mentality that we post-industrial-revolution types have today....

Having said that, I haven't done any wire work, so I can't comment directly, but I suspect that given the fact that no wood is actually removed in installation and the very small dimensions involved, that the wire would probably stay in fine - we don't generally see incisions in seasoned wood open up in winter, do we? It might be a bit more inclined to work its way out over the years, though. I, being a cautious soul, would probably do a test piece in the dog days of summer and wait until fall to do the gun, but I'm more than a little bit OCD about, well, a lot of things.

[B.Habermehl]

My shop is in the basement so the humidity is sorta high year round. That being said I usually put a completely assembled Gun in my truck to bake for a couple of days. Before finishing. This seems to help with the difference in seasonal movement. I’ll often need to adjust inlets and file butplate edges etc. then I finish. I do this summer or winter. I’ll leave the windows open a inch or so in the summer. Sort of a impromptu kiln. BJH

[deepcreekdale]

I live in northern Florida which is very hot,>100 at times in the summer with humidity to match and sometimes below freezing in the winter with very ,ow humidity. My shop is a separate building, somewhat climate controlled but it is still very hot and humid in the summer and cool and dry in the winter. I might get a little bit of wood standing above the furniture in the summer and it may retract below it slightly in the winter. But, it is not much and certainly manageable. I have never had any problems with silver wire regardless of the time of year, temperature or humidity when I installed it. My only procedure is to make sure ALL of my stock wood sits for a minimum of one year in drying racks so it can cycle. If I try to work a stock that arrives from out of state immediately, the problem does seem to be worse. I try to plan ahead and always have stock blanks available that have been able to sit for a while before being worked. That may not be a solution for everyone but I think it is worth considering for people who live in areas with either extreme humidity or dry conditions. I would guess in the old days, many gunsmiths had stock blanks on drying racks for extended periods of time.

[martin9]

I'm in AL and my shop is also not climate controlled. Besides guns I build longbows, guitars and violins. For many years now my habit is when it's super humid outside I just bring whatever I'm working on inside every evening. In  an AL summer the AC is on 24/7 so the inside humidity is pretty low.  With good seasoned wood I've never noticed any issues with swelling and contraction.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

All of my stock blanks come from out of state.  I did not even think about seasoning them for that. 

Thanks everyone,

Cory Joe Stewart

[Nordnecker]

Climate conditions definately affect my work. I simply cannot do high quality meticulous work when I'm sweating all over it.

[flehto]

Because of the many other activities in a year, my gun work was done from Nov. through March.  So over the other months, the gun and its parts laid idle....and when restarting in the new year's  NOV., the  gun and its parts were the same as in March of the previous year.

I once tried building a LR during the  summer months   w/ its much higher humidity and the change mainly to the stock req'd add'tl work....so never did it again.....Fred

[Ed Wenger]

Cory..., the wire will be fine.  Make sure the wire is prepped for installation by either nicking up the bottom edge, or running the wire ribbon under the edge of a file.  Once you have either of these “anchors” on the wire, it should be fine, along with wetting the wood around the wire.  Best,


         Ed

[Dphariss]

My indoor humidity (house) is 5% this AM. I live in Montana and one MUST let stocks normalize here before inletting. In July/August/Sept outdoor humidity will drop below 15% at times.  I had a barrel channel cut by Dave Rase and when it came back the barrel was a very loose fit. In 2 weeks it had lost the West Coast water and the barrel fit again. So one must be careful if one lives in a dry climate.
My shop is heated and even dimensional lumber from the local lumber yard will shrink and check when brought indoors for a week or two.

Dan

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Cory..., the wire will be fine.  Make sure the wire is prepped for installation by either nicking up the bottom edge, or running the wire ribbon under the edge of a file.  Once you have either of these “anchors” on the wire, it should be fine, along with wetting the wood around the wire.  Best,


         Ed

Thanks Ed!

Cory Joe