Humidity?

[D.A. Davis]

When building laminated bows, does high humidity have any effect on the woods and/or glues used?

[Kevin Breaux]

I am no expert, just a hacker of wood, but everything I have read or learned from others, I would say yes. When I learned to make glass bows, I was taught to always place wood lams and risers in the hot box for at least thirty-min before glue up. My area always has high humidty. (I am knocking on wood, right now) I have never had a glass bow delam, but there will be a first time I know it, but until then, I'll continue to heat up my lams and risers before glue up. I have a hand held moisture meter that is (more) accurate on thinner slats of wood, so I also check the Mc when they come out of the hot box. I will proceed with the glue up when the lams and riser are between 8-11 Mc. I am sure there is someone here more experenced than I, that is able to give you better info!

[DCM]

It can cause delam when dissimilar woods, or grain orientation, are joined.  Idea is when it drys the different rates of shrinkage pull the glue line apart.  Folks generally put their lams and riser billets in a hot box before glue up.

[D.A. Davis]

So, from what I've read on this site, you need to wash your riser woods and limb laminations in acetone to get rid of the oils in the wood, and heat the woods in the hotbox to dry them out for an hour, or so, before assembly.  Is that right?

[No-sage]

An hour won't dry your wood.  When people put their wood in the hotbox before glue-up, they do it to warm the wood to allow better adhesion of the glue.

To make sure your wood is dry, you need to store it in a low humidity area (like a hot box), for a prolonged period of time, depending on it's thickness.

Also, I'm not a big fan of using acetone to remove oil.  I think freshly sanding a lam or riser is just as good, or better, of a practice