Newbie with high humidity

[Do Re Mi]

I joined this site a few months ago, had too wait to get started due to a move.  All moved in, but have a couple of questions before I get started.  I now live on the oregon coast, high humidity, fog, all the wonderful things I love about the coast. Having read thru some of the forum, I know there are threads regarding dealing with high humidity, as I will be pouring in my garage.  I've not been able to find the threads using search, so if anyone has a link to them, I'd appreciate it. 
My understanding is I should store my plastic, (clear plastisol) in the house and heat up the containers I'm going to use to melt and pour in an oven to remove any condensation or moisture, is the above pretty much the main concerns?
Do I need to store my colorants, heat stabilizer, etc in the house also?
Can I use the microwave to heat my containers to remove moisture or do I have use an actual oven?
Hope the above makes some sense, would appreciate any other advice or tips.
Thanks
John

[ctom]

Well Music Man, I'll re-welcome you to the Do-It forums.

Keeping the plastic in an area that is being de-humidified [ or air conditioned], such as inside the home is good as moisture from the air has way less chance to somehow get inside the bag or container. Hot/cold extremes can also assist the moisture too. I keep all of my colorants and additives in the house all year and simply take what I'll be needing to the garage to inject and most all of my moisture issues have gone away so I'll just say that keeping it all in the house isn't a bad idea. Do you HAVE to? Who knows for sure.

If you want to pre-heat you cups and stuff in the microwave have at it. Heat them up for half a minute then wipe out using a paper towel.

[Do Re Mi]

Thanks for the info, figure better to be safe and go the extra.

[andrewlamberson]

I am convinced (after a considerable amount of testing) that plastic " problems" are commonly caused by incomplete mixing and humidity.

I would suggest that when you order your plastic you order 4 quart bottles to start. They can stay sealed from humidity and are much easier to mix completely.

Keep the cap on the empty bottles, and then refill from the gallon container in the future ( making sure it is completely mixed!).

Welcome, good luck and keep reading!

Andy

[ctom]

Mixing and storing plastic was on my mind for the other post but somehow got back stashed. Go figure that. lol

I do as Andy suggests and keep four or five quarts of plastic in the house in a dehumidified room. When I want to cook I grab one or whatever I need and hit the shop. My 5 gallon bulks pail stays in the garage during the summer and is brought in about the end of October and also kept in the dry room. I short fill the quart bottles to allow room for good mixing by shaking and I shake those bottles a long time before each use, then let them rest 15 minutes before pouring. The 5 gallon bucket gets opened and mixed with a paint blender in a 1/2" drill and the plastic in the pail is mixed every other week for at least ten minutes.

[2XL]

I shoot my baits in the garage but I usually keep all my plastisol, colorants and whatnot in the basement. With the weather of late, the dehumidifier has been working overtime. Anyhow, I was wondering if cool plastisol might draw a tiny bit of moisture due to the temperature/humidity difference between the garage and basement. I shot baits 3 or 4 times over a 2-3 week period and though the it seemed I didn't get as many bubbles I don't think  it made much of a difference whether I kept my plastisol in the basement or in the garage. I keep all my plastic making stuff on a tool cart so it's no big deal to wheel it back and forth from the basement to the garage so Ill just keep that stuff in the basement here on out.

One thing I noticed last weekend was that my molds did draw a lot of condensation. It's been hot and very humid here due to all the rain we have been getting of late so it didn't surprise me. I preheat my molds on a small electric griddle so I laid the molds I was going to use on that and let them warm up so they could "dry out " a little. After about 15 minutes I wiped them down with paper towel.  Same deal with my cups. I always wipe them with a paper towel with a little rubbing alcohol, nuke for 30 seconds then wipe again with a dry paper towel. Does it make a difference ? Dunno, but at least my cups are clean. LOL

Bottom line for me is that when it's humid I can expect more bubbles than usual. 

[Do Re Mi]

Appreciate all the advice, unfortunately I already place my order with Do-It for a 1 gal container  .  I will look for some suitable 1 qt container to stores the plastisol in, I like the idea of keeping the majority of the plastisol inside.
Thanks
John

[Steve J]

1 quart canning jars seem to work for me.

[ctom]

Your gallon jug will work fine. When ordering larger quantities its just easier to handle on a daily basis if its put into smaller more manageable containers. Just be sure to start off each session at the molds with a good shaking of the plastic.

When I shake my bottles and/or boxes I rotate them containers several times during the shaking so that the bottom side is up for a while and then so that the bottom side is at 90 degrees, or to the side. I give about 30 seconds of shaking on each rotation. Then the jugs rest for 10 minutes or so to let any bubbles die away.

[Steve J]

Would degassing the plastic be a benefit it this 'war against the bubbles'?

[ctom]

De-gassing I think is maybe a marketing ploy. Stop and consider that you have to shake or mix this plastic to keep all of its components incorporated with each other....s'pose bubbles don't get involved in this process? I can't say that I have heard any banter at this site about de-gassing since most here use the Do-It products. It could well be that a different product name of similar plastic may need de-gassing, but I'm not familiar with other brands so much other than some of the M-F stuff and nothing was ever said about it being de-gassed.

2XL and WalleyeWacker are both from the great state of Wisconsin and I know they both enjoy liberal amounts of the golden nectar with their cheese and if any gas was to found near plastic it would likely be contained  and generated within those two guys and they never mention de-gassing other than in the midst of company but I think they are making reference to something else maybe.