Controlling humidity while spraying?

[tugboat]

I live in Savannah, Ga and want to start a Telecaster build. I live in an apartment and have a standalone non-climate controlled garage. Is there anything I can do to help reduce the humidity while I spray or should I just wait until afternoon when the humidity is in the 60's to spray?

[KYChucky]

I would hold off until it is driest as possible. but I think it will be fine. I guess you are concerned about spraying lacquer? I just finished my neck with Deft nitro clear lacquer and it was fine. I would guess the humidity in the basement garage was in the 60s or higher (house with heat on was around 66%). I opened the garage door to let out the fumes between coats so the temp was below 60f also. I did 4 to 5 coats the first day, then did that again a few days later. It took two days to be able to wet sand after the next 4 coats with about 40 min gaps between coats. I could have put another 4-5 coats on. You could do some testing to see how it goes first.

[KYChucky]

I ment in the house 56%. but again do a test to be sure. Who knows what you will learn from the test.

[Cogs]

I would not spray in an enclosed space w/out ventilation, & woyuld not use any ventilation that was not explosion-proof.
If you are going to spray in high humidity then you might want to add some retarder.

[KYChucky]

71818 is correct. you do have to watch that 'blowing yourself up' thing. My space was more or less open to the outside. and I was only spraying the back side of a neck with a real mask on. 6 passes over the neck with a spray can and the door went up. That was it, no more.

[tugboat]

Thanks for the input! I posed the same question on the guitar reranch forums and they said that I should be fine to spray with rattlecans out in the open, just have some blush remover handy just in case. That's a bit of a relief cause in Southeast Georgia we really only have two humidity levels: humid as heck and slightly less humid as heck.

[Offshore Angler]

A drop or two of fisheye remover in the paint will take care of the humidity. Shouldn't bother you at all. I doubt blush will be a big problem on a nitro or butyrate lacquer these days as they, like most auto paints, have silicone in them as a flow agent But even if it blushes it will fade out as the paint cures.

There are also water-based lacquers such as those used by Fender which work well.

Explosive, yeah, OK. I've been around guys painting motorcycles, cars, airplanes, boats, you name it all my life. Never heard of a car body-shop blowing up. And you usually have a guys with grinders in the same space as the painters. Also, sure, you don't want to breathe it too long, but painting one guitar probably won't kill you. Doing it all day for a living is a different deal.