A friend of mine once bought two hairless kittens from a lady in Canada, in the winter, and she shipped them all the way to Florida in an insulated crate filled with Polar fleece and with those self-heating packs stuck to the inside walls of the crate. The kitties arrived in prime condition. I think some of the packs were still warm, too.
Hi, Davey.
There may be a temperature effect where the wood expands and contracts at a different rate than the metal fittings as the temperature changes, but my understanding is that the effect due to the wood expanding and contracting with changes in moisture content is greater.
If the wood gains moisture and expands inside the metal fittings, it will crush, since the metal fittings won’t be affected by the moisture at all and will stay the same size. Then, when the wood contracts again, the fittings become loose. If the wood contracts around a tuning slide, the wood will split because the tuning slide restricts the wood from contracting inward, so it has to split apart to allow the reduction in circumference.
Best wishes,
Jerry
I was going to post this in the weird weather post, but figured that it fits here. There is no such thing as weird Minnesota weather (unless it’s unexplainably nice). I have on many occassions travelled from South Dakota to Minnesota and I can tell you that there is ALWAYS a huge bank of clouds on the Minnesota side of the border. It could be 40 and sunny on the SD side, but the second that you cross the border it’s -25, windy and you can’t see for the snow flurries. (I’m sure that Nano will dispell my ellaborately crafted myth, but it’s mostly true).
Erik
It REALLY is a cultural thing… many years ago back in my “youth” I was travelling in Greece. I was in Athens on a Sunday night (BOOORING) when I overheard a conversation.
“…ack, that’s nothing! Hell, we get 4 feet of snow by Christmas and it never gets above Zero…the windchill will give you frostbite in 5 minutes!”
etc..it went on from there…I intruded and asked where he was from…Yah sure, you bet he was from Mee- neh-so-dah…up nort.
I live in a part of Norway were the winter gives us -20 to -40 degrees, celsius, so I worry about this each time I take a guitar from my livingroom ant out into my car from october to april… and the air is so dry that we spend 5 months scratching eachothers backs…
Slowing down the temperaturecanges as much as possible and keeping the wood from drying out is what I think is most important.
I think the piping stuff was a great idea. Slow down the changes as much as you can, and make sure the wood is on the wet side rather than dried out.
Yay a possible keyed whistle maker. 
I would go with the bubble pack idea. One extra thing though, try putting it in a ziplock bag. The sealed package of air should behave like the thermosbottle effect.
To control humidity, you need to put something with it that would allow some absorbtion. Some people use Orange peels, maybe something like that. Or those little silica gel dessicant packs? You should put a test piece of wood in a pack and test it out.
Here is a good source for the gel packs: http://www.preservesmart.com/products.htm#SilicaGelDesiccants
Erik