That random stat about 70% of cabinet doors warping from uneven humidity in the shop finally made me buy a dehumidifier last week.

I saw it buried in a Fine Woodworking forum thread from 2019 where a guy in Oregon broke down his moisture meter readings over two years and it hit me how much I was gambling with my own builds, anyone else check their shop humidity regularly or just wing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninas701mo agoProlific Poster

And yeah, I was totally winging it for years too, just crossed my fingers every time I glued up a panel. That Fine Woodworking thread you mentioned finally got me to grab a little hygrometer for my shop, and I'm honestly embarrassed at how much the numbers jump around in here. It's just one of those things you don't think about until you're staring at a warped piece of cherry wondering where it all went wrong.

parker_bell1mo ago

...and that's exactly what happened to my buddy Frank. He's been building furniture for twenty years, built himself a nice little detached shop, but never bothered with humidity control. A few months back he finished a walnut dining table, flat as glass when it left his shop. Two weeks later the client sent photos of a noticeable bow in the top. Frank drove over with his moisture meter and found 4 percent difference between the middle and the edge of the board. He spent a weekend building a simple humidity box and now checks everything before glue-up. Calls it his "embarrassment tax.