I hate it when the weather is so humid that the mounts will seem to never dry. But too *little* humidity can be even worse.
It just got really cold here in NC and keep my shop heater running all the time now. It's an electric in-wall heater/air conditioner combo. When I'm not out there I keep the temp as low as it will go, which is 66F. Seems a little high to me but that's the lowest setting.
So the air in my shop is really dry and hot right now.
I try to watch over my mounts well as they are drying, but it seems like they are drying way faster than normal and more than I can keep up with. On Sunday I was gone and not in my shop at all, and when I returned the next day almost all of my newly completed mounts have developed pretty large cracks between the glass eyes and the eyelids as well as the mouth area was shrinking too much. No biggie to fix, I can just rehydrate the area and watch it more carefully. But this can't be right.
Is there anything I can do to keep this from happenig, short of babysitting the mounts 24 hours a day? They're just drying out too fast!
Amy
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Take a small brush and "paint" a small anount of EZ 100 on the eyelids where they join the glass. This will slow down the drying
and you can keep adjusting for 3 or 4 days.
Hey amy,
I place a plastic bag around the head or at least the face on mine to slow them done and allow more woking time. It doesn't have to be tied tight, just placed over them loosely. You can place damp rags over them briefly at times to slow them down as well but you have to be careful not to get them wet and cause problems the other way. If you don't have a bag just wrap some plastic over the face and that works as well.
AMY, try relocating the termostate for the heater in a "hotter spot" so it won't kick-on so much. A damp cloth over it, the thermostate, would be an experiment for you providing you were around to see what difference in temperature it makes, (by not kicking-on). Also, did you install a roof vent of some type in you facility?
I have the same problem this time of year, it takes two days to dry a deer head, or at least it seems that way. I wrap the heads with a garbage bag for two to three days, that slows the drying some.
Here we need to clarify your terminology. We had that same arctic cold hit us.....From late wed. Jan 12 until late morning on Jan 18 we never saw a high temp that didn't have a - in front of it. That is "really cold", What you had was what we call "cool" flannel shirt weather. LOL See you at World.
You can get this from Avon and put it on the eyes, nose and lips. It will slow down the drying and help retain some of the color.
You want to see something dry....whew...live here year round:)
Bag'em loosely, and adjust over a couple of day period. No problem.
Jim
You should try doing taxidermy in Nevada in the summer time.The plastic bag thing is a good way to go.There are several ways of doing it,depending on how dry it is.After awhile you will learn exactly what technique works best for your conditions.You may have to spritz the head with water and cover it with a garbage bag.If conditions are extremely dry,I would tie off the bag.I would bag them at night and leave it off during the day and then tune the mount 2 or three times while I am there and then bag again at night.You can leave the bag open,but draped over the mount to allow a little drying at night or as Steve said cover only the head.Once you get the hang of it,you can really control the speed of drying.Just leave the plastic off while you are there to tend to the mount.If you happen to over do it and the mount gets a little mold on it,don't panic,just wipe it off with a rag and some acetone-it goes right away.Just keep the acetone away from your heater.By the time you read all these posts,you'll have the opposite problem.Good luck.
Amy, regarding your thermostat that only goes down to 66. You should call an HVAC business and tell them you want a thermostat that goes much lower.They are fairly cheap, and it will pay for itself in a short time with the LP you will save. I live up here in Wisconsin, and I have a thermostat in the garage that goes down to 35 degrees. Just enough to keep the cars somewhat warm, when the outside temp is sub-zero! Hope this helps.
I think Amy's heater/air condition is a "window unit" type. Which would have the thermostat mounted on the coil. So I dont know of anyway she can change the thermostat location. In our hunting cabin we use one of those electric "roll around" radiant,liquid filled heaters to keep the water pipes from freezing when we are not there. She might consider trying one of them. They have a very low setting on them. Just a rookie thinking out loud.....
Teddy