an exercise in futility

allen levine

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new york city burbs
after the weatherman said today was going to be a less humid day with cooler temps, I set up the garage in temporary spray booth fashion.

today the humidity is up near 80-90%, right on weatherman, you guys are always spot on!

spraying water based lacquer, oh boy.
 
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The waterborne lacquer shouldn't be affected much by the humidity. It'll just take (a lot) longer to dry.

We've got that humidity here, too. Been mid+ 80°s, with 85~95% humidity for the past week or more, with no relief in sight.
 
I leave the door open when I spray, leave it open for 15 minutes, and then close it, Im running the AC to shorten dry times.

I need the unit out of the garage by tomorrow afternoon, its slowing down things.
 
I know little or next to nothing about spraying chemicals.

can retarder be put into water based products?

in dry air, 75 degrees, I can recoat within 30 minutes.

I don't think you'd want to use a retarder in cases where you're trying to shorten the drying time. As Jim said, in humid weather, the drying times increase for waterborne finishes.
 
I have some from Target Coatings when they suggested I use it, the explanation was the same as you would have for NC lacquer, it helps with the blushing caused by humidity. That said, I'm not normally plagued with humidity problems so I can't testify first hand it works.
 
I have some from Target Coatings when they suggested I use it, the explanation was the same as you would have for NC lacquer, it helps with the blushing caused by humidity. That said, I'm not normally plagued with humidity problems so I can't testify first hand it works.

Actually, the retarder is only for slowing down the drying time in high temp situations. This from their website:

SA5 Universal Retarder is specifically engineered to reduce the viscosity and slow down the dry-time of our waterborne coatings during high temperature applications. SA5 is best used when EMTECH Series WB finishes are being applied with turbine HVLP spray equipment or when the substrate surface being finished is above room temperature. Start with a measured amount of 5% by liquid volume when used for spray applications. Use an addition of 10-20%, SA5 to improve the brushing and wiping actions of all our systems.

The high humidity, by itself, will slow down the drying.
 
Im glad I didn't wait till today, the humidity is up near 90% with a dew point of 65, a lot of peach fuzz on the unit, I got 6 coats of target em6000 on it, started yesterday at 8:30 in the morning. A little 320 sanding and I think it will be fine.
.
 
I have used nearly 100 gallons of Target lacquer. I have never had the blushing common with solvent lacquer in high humidity. But I have had issues when the temperature is over 100 degrees, especially dark wood in the sun.

My limiting case - two lessons learned - was when I was pushing to get "just one more" coat on before it rained, so humidity was practically 100%. I was counting on 10 minutes after spraying to get the work back under cover. I lost the bet - it started raining. Each drop of rain created a crater all the way through the finish. Lesson 1 - humidity is not a problem. Lesson 2 - Target water base lacquer really does have full burn in with all previous layers. So I sanded off the finish with the craters and started over after the rain.
 
I must be remembering my problem wrong; maybe it was heat, but I could swear it was blush. I'm old...forgetting is part of it.:( Whatever happened then we are suffering from the humidity now as well, dew point in the low 70's the last several days. Just as bad, it's not real hot (upper 70's), so the AC isn't running enough to help with it.
 
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its all sanded down and came out ok, Im waiting on getting the word to "ship" it.
My nephew lives an hour or so north of me, and just as my luck goes, he lives on third floor, walk up.
If he cant get help, its one step at a time. gonna take an hour to get up the stairs.
 
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