#it’s a plastic vent though so the frame itself can’t be what’s producing it

[simplyghosting]

Vent in my bathroom is crooked and also leaking some weird red stuff and it’s so annoying bc I’m too short to reach up and fix it

[clockwaysarts]

Hey, so I'm looking into trying to cast some things in resin, but I've heard that humidity can mess things up. I live in Florida and it's humid as HELL. I've heard that some people get a de-humidifier for this problem. I originally planned on doing my casting in my garage, do you think a de-humidifier would be okay to put out there? It's relatively closed off, so I think it might work?

Man I wish I had a clear, easy answer for this but the best I have is Ideas. But I’m happy to share them. In fact I’ll just make this my Tip & Tuts Tues.

As background I’m in the hella humid Houston area myself so I understand. All my casting is done my garage also. I do have a pressure pot for casting.

First thing is there’s two important items with resin: humidity and heat. Read all about it below the cut.

Humidity:

Humidity you’ve brought up already. Humidity, as you know, is water being held in the air that makes everything moist, sticky hell. An important thing to note is that the hotter it is, the more water air can hold without issue, and the less humid it is. This is the dew point. The cooler it is, the less it can hold- to the point eventually raining or misting. This is why in the morning the humidity will be higher and at peak heat, lower. Right now around 10am it’s between 75-85% humidity here and around 2pm it’s 45-55%. The hotter it is the less humid.

In resin, my understanding of it, is that the moisture gets into the mix and can mess with the curing process. This can be all the way from not curing at all to clouding. If you look at my alligator you’ll see that despite my best efforts, there is is some clouding in the resin visible along the curve.

Right now, as I don’t have a great set up outside (more about plans later) I’ve been pouring and coloring inside in a venting bathroom. I then cast outside in the heat of the day when humidity is lowest. This does mean casting outside where it’s easily 110+ in my garage and runs into the second problem still..

Heat:

Heat also effects resin pretty heavily. Resin’s chemical curing process itself produces heat. Extreme heat- aka what we live in- can ruin resin and mess with curing times pretty heavily. Resin is happiest at the mid 70′s (boy would I like that temperature.. ever). Store your resin inside!

Curing wise here’s what I’ve seen:

At high heat, resin mixes together quickly- about a 15 count. You can tell with the resin I currently use (Smooth On 326) because it becomes cloudy when it first starts mixing and then clears when it’s mixed. In cold temperature- I was casting out at high 30′s, low 40′s last winter- it can take a 45+ count to clear.

In heat resin’s work time and cure time is also greatly accelerated and like wise decelerated in cold. Right now in the heat I can only do one color casts or it will stop being workable before I can’t even get it in the pressure pot and then be full of bubbles. It’s… limiting.

Possible Solutions:

All honesty here this is just the research that I’ve done so far- which is not entirely finished- and the plans I have. Please keep that in mind I may have some things wrong!

Humidity: 

As you’ve said, dehumidifiers are a great option! These suck the moisture out of the air, lowering the humidity. There seems to be three important factors with dehumidifiers:

amount of cubic feet they’ll handle

amount of water that it will suck from the air per hour

capacity size/draining ability of the water storage tank

The bigger the space it can pull from and the fast it pulls the more expensive it can be- up to a good few hundred dollars. If you can limit the space it has to pull from and be ready to start it long before you want to cast, the cheaper and smaller you can go.

Heat:

Really the only option for this that doesn’t add more humidity is an AC unit. Either piped in air or a little stand alone unit like goes in windows. Again, ACs are rated and priced similarly by:

amount of cubic feet they’ll cool

amount of cooling it can produce per hour

My Plan:

My garage is not at all well sealed and it’s far bigger than I need to deal with! My car doesn’t need to be dehumidified, for example. I intend (and really need to get on this plan when it’s less brutal to work out there) to basically make the framework for a ‘room’. You can make frames rather simply or buy them pre-made. Instead of solid walls though, It will be wrapped in velum- a heavy plastic used in construction sites or labs. This will help keep it mostly air tight.

I’ll have a humidifier in it- preferable self draining- and a small standalone AC unit. I’m debating since it’s in and out if I need to work on ventilation. The AC might handle it and be enough with my mask. If not, a small exhaust fan is easiest but not air tight at all. There’s a slim chance I might get my hands on a used fume hood and all of this is easier. 

Basically this will become my small casting room that I can do my best to combat this lovely weather that I live in. I hope this helps some!

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