Shopsmith Forums

At my place, the spring the usually means a lot of moisture coming up through the concrete floor in the garage. No liquid, just humidity and a couple of dark spots on the floor. This year my 8x8 walled off and insulated room in the corner was getting pretty damp and the hydrometer reached 60% so I put our portable dehumidifier in there. Guess how much water I pulled out of the room in 24 hours. The hydrometer is reading 30% now.

OK, for those of us in ARI(D)ZONA,
you want to explain?

What is "moisture?" The stuff that
MIGHT come out of the tap?, If we're
lucky?

Seriously, that is why my brother
doesn't have a "swamp cooler" in
his shop.

steve

I didnt know AZ had any swamps. I heard it is pretty hot down there already. Bad year for Pollen too. So hot the snow birds are migrating north early, I bet Dusty is happy about that.

moggymatt wrote:At my place, the spring the usually means a lot of moisture coming up through the concrete floor in the garage. No liquid, just humidity and a couple of dark spots on the floor. This year my 8x8 walled off and insulated room in the corner was getting pretty damp and the hydrometer reached 60% so I put our portable dehumidifier in there. Guess how much water I pulled out of the room in 24 hours. The hydrometer is reading 30% now.

Gallons??

ERLover wrote:I didnt know AZ had any swamps. I heard it is pretty hot down there already. Bad year for Pollen too. So hot the snow birds are migrating north early, I bet Dusty is happy about that.

https://www.google.com/search?q=weather ... 8&oe=utf-8 Check out the reported humidity level.

BTW, Snow Birds are always welcome. They are the foundation for the winter economy here.

Moisture can be a real problem here in Maryland. As I poured each section of floor in my shop, I layed down a layer of the heavy 6 mil. contractor plastic as a vapor barrier.

It took a little longer for the concrete to dry but well worth it. My floor is bone dry...

Even with doing that, I still need to run a dehumidifier in the summer or keep the air conditioner running on low to combat what seeps in around the doors.

Mike

I have my shop in my basement of my house, so Spring moisture isn't an issue here. My boiler sits in an adjacent room in the basement and keeps things nice and dry all Fall, Winter, and Spring. In the Summer when the boiler isn't running, it can get humid in my basement if we get a long wet spell of weather. In that case, I run my portable dehumidifier in the basement to pull out the water from the air. My dehumidifier fills itself about every 12 hours of run time when it gets humid in the Summer. That is about 4 gallons of water per day out of the air.
Keeping the air dry has prevented my 1983 Shopsmith from getting any rust at all in its lifetime. Treat a good tool right, and it will easily outlast you.

and that is a good thing. another thing that is done is to cover the slab and put a sprinkler on it to slow it down as much as possible in hot weather.
it is NOT good for concrete to cure fast.

c

oldiron wrote:
It took a little longer for the concrete to dry but well worth it. My floor is bone dry...

Mike

60% humidity is considered low in Florida. Last week the our humidity ran about 91% percent every evening. It is now down to a very comfortable 68% according to my humidity gauge, official weather station says 71%.
So I'm not sure I understand the concern. Just used Johnston paste wax on anything that can rust.

Well, I don't know if you guys with conic high humidity are bragging or complaining? Anyway, I've got my restored 10er and my Dewalt scroll saw in that room now and want to take care of them. Here, 60% is getting just about sticky. I just came back from a trip to mid state NY where I grew up and the humidity there was so high I felt like I was swimming. I guess you get used to where your living and it all becomes relavent.

Well, it was just short of 1 gallon in 24hrs.