Question
What weather factors cause you to say "I better do something else today rather than spray"? I live in MS near the coast and our humidity is always high, most of the time real high (90% or above) and usually hot. My spray room is neither heated nor air conditioned, so the humidity/temperature inside are pretty close to what they are outside. With these conditions, I always anticipate blushing, so I never spray without retarder. The only times that I've noticed problems was when the weather changed, i.e. a front moved through, started raining, warmed up, cooled off, etc. The front that blasted the Midwest yesterday moved through here late yesterday afternoon. I had been trying to finish up 30 cherry doors with Magnmax with 6-8% Care Retarder prior to the weather change. I knew I should have used Flow Enhance #2 but didn't have any. I gambled and lost. The front, with its humidity wave, hit us at about door #21. The last 9 doors blushed just a little... imagine that. I quickly corrected the problem this morning at a friend's heated booth, but what a pain.
Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor T:
We don't have nearly the kind of problems you do, but I usually keep an eye on the dew point in the shop. When the inside dew point gets within 15 degrees or so of the inside ambient temp, it's time to take a break. Dip an electronic meat thermometer into alcohol or acetone, let it stabilize and watch what happens when you pull it out. You'll probably see a 15 degree temp drop or more. You could do the same thing in your thinned finish to see how much it drops as it dries. When the drying finish temp gets down to or near the dew point, you're likely to have some problems. Most of the little weather stations these days can be switched between Rh and dew point.
