Need relative humidity meter

[llucas]

Really would like a reliable/?cheap humidity meter for my shop...any suggestions?

This is the best site ever for sharing experience and saving money...summer is coming and I will need to do some refinishing in the shop...I just installed a thru-the-wall AC unit for comfort and for helping with the humidity, plus I have a donated dehumidfier (questionalble effectiveness). I just need to have a way to know when it is too humid to apply some finishes...ie lacquer...Last year I had real issues with "blush" and I would really like to avoid it this year.:help:
Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[Tarhead]

Hey Luke!
This is about as cheap and the most accurate at normal room temps you can get. It's just not fast:
http://www.flinnsci.com/documents/demopdfs/earthsci/es10301.pdf

 

[llucas]

Mark
Thanks for the link...I went to the pdf for making a sling psychrometer and read with interest...I especially like instruction #4...


4. Hammer the nail carefully into the end of the wooden dowel rod. This step should be done by the teacher.

I think they know me!...:rotflm:

In any case, my talents lie more in retail procurement when it come to things like this.

Thanks anyway...

 

[ehpoole]

I use an Oregon Scientific wireless weather station to monitor temperature in my shop and outdoors, the simple models that only do temperature and humidity can be had pretty cheaply.

You can also find a lot of indoor and outdoor temperature stations that also include an indoor humidity sensor and are also pretty inexpensive, especially nowadays.

Alternatively, if you have a dehumidifier with a digital humidistat, you can simply program it to maintain a specific humidity -- in which case you do not need to worry about the humidity in your shop since it will be close to a known value (should be within +/- 5% of the dehumidifier setting). Not only will your wood then be maintained in a much more stable environment, but your steel and cast iron surfaces will largely cease to rust once a dehumidifier is setup. I use a setting of 45%RH, but any value between 40-60%RH should yield a comfortable working environment and anything in the 40-50%RH range should largely eliminate rusting of your steel and cast iron equipment.

 

[Gofor]

Sam's club has some of the "Atomic" clocks that have an "outside" sensor for temp and humidity for about $30. Just put the outside sensor in the shop, or put the clock itself in there. I bought one a few weeks ago and it seems to be fairly accurate, comparing to the TV weather news reports. Probably close enough to determine if blushing will be a problem.

As an alternate or in addition to: automotive paint stores sell blush retardant lacquer thinner (contains varying amounts of xylene) that can be used in high humidity environments. They dry slower, so go light with the coating as it will be more prone to sagging and runs.

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