My shellac finish clouded up on a humid day in Atlanta

I was finishing a walnut table last Tuesday when the humidity spiked, and the dew point was way too high for the shellac I was using. The whole surface went milky white before it could dry properly, and I had to strip it back to bare wood with denatured alcohol. Has anyone found a good dew point alert system or just a solid rule of thumb for when to call it a day?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan_foster601mo ago

Check your local weather radar for moisture moving in.

nathanbennett1mo ago

Last Tuesday I was in my garage fighting the same fight with a shellac coat on a coffee table and man, that milky haze hit me like a brick. Honestly, I've started noticing this humidity thing goes way beyond woodworking. It's the same reason my phone screen gets foggy when I walk into my house from the heat, or why my car windows steam up in the morning after a rainy night. The dew point is just one of those sneaky physics things that ruins everything from paint jobs to just feeling comfortable in your own skin. I use a cheap little hygrometer from the hardware store that I keep on my workbench. Ngl, I just call it a day when the humidity hits 70 percent or higher, no matter what the weather radar says.