Garage Studio. |. Best Practice
Howdy all. I have a start-up studio in my garage in the Dallas, Texas area and this will be my first summer. The space is not climate controlled. Currently in the garage:
10pm / 88 degrees, 48% humidity, wind out of the south and has not rained in a few days when the humidity was in the mid-70% range.
Anyone care to weigh in on running a dehumidifier 24/7 and/or some type of a/c unit?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Best, Tony
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I run a shop in my garage, i’m in the northeast, near the ocean and on a pond, if its too hot or too cold or there is a lot of humidity then nothing wants to work. Have a small air conditioner in the wall that I run if I need it. Have run dehumidifiers but were not very happy with them. In the winter I keep a low heat on (about 55 degrees) my building is well insulated. Printing goes a lot easier I find if you keep the building at a constant temperature and get the humidity out.
You should consider getting advice from an HVAC contractor. There are too many variables for advice over the web to be reliable. You don’t have to buy what the contractor suggests, but at least hear what he/she has to say. Then you will be in a better position to make an informed decision.
LD
Greetings from the Great White North. We really don’t live here in Igloos, but our winters tend to be fairly long and a cold. The cold outside temperature coupled with the constant inside heating tends to make the inside air very dry. I found that it makes Lettra hard and brittle and difficult to draw a deep impression on it. During our short summers, we are getting the humidity from you guys, down from the Gulf. I let the climate control itself, by opening the door and let the air go in and out as it wishes! I found hot and sticky weather the best for making deep impressions.
There is a whole discussion on the internet about moisturising the paper and making it more pliable and printable. Couple years ago, I used a bar-fridge shell to make a humidor. It worked really well, the paper became soft and pliable like PlayDough. My problem was that soon as I paused printing, the paper started rapidly to curl and after a short period of idle time I could not continue to feed it trough the press any more. I stopped using the humidor.
I think that humidity and moisture are good for printing. Today’s inks are formulated to be used with fountain solutions. I am seriously considering to try to hook-up my thistle dampening system to my Heidelberg to see how would it print, especially on solids. The alternate idea I am entertaining is to install a water-spray on the in-feed side, similar in operation to the powder-spray on the delivery side.
Louie
http://eagleprint.ca
thanks all — now, Option B:
we are recent empty-nesters, and I could move my Vandercook SP-20 inside to a nice-size game-room that has a concrete floor without getting divorced — 8-) — anyone have their press inside? Alittle concerned about fumes from the mineral spirits/ink?
Appreciate your thoughts on that.
Tony
If your game room has somewhere you could add an outside-vented range hood where you could also park the Vandy that should keep the fumes under control — in theory you only generate them when washing up anyway. I certainly would opt for the game room with climate control for more enjoyable printing.
Bob