Moisture meter?

[David Wadstrup]

Hello Everyone,

How necessary is a moisture meter for a small time woodworking hobbyist? I know they are helpful, but do I really need this $250-$300 gadget? I am about to purchase 300bf of 8/4 slabs of Hard Maple that has been drying outside for 12 years, and will be bringing it in to my shop/home. I live in New York, so the forced air is already bringing the relative humidity way, way down. I figured I'd let the lumber sit for about a month to acclimate, maybe a month and a half. Does this sound like a reasonable amount of time? Do I need to invest in the meter? What do you think?

Thanks for your advice,

David Wadstrup

[David Wadstrup]

And if you do feel it really necessary, what pinless brand/model would be appropriate and recommended?

Thanks

[Bill Davis]

Kind of depends on what you plan on doing with the wood. The wood likely has a moisture content around 15-20%. If you are going to build something for inside the house you will want the MC to be more like 8%. "Someone once quipped that more than 90% of all problems with wood involve moisture." - a quote from Understanding Wood. Don't know how much you paid for the wood and your woodworking tools but it might be worth up to a couple of hundred to save frustration and protect your investment. Another quote from R. Bruce Hoadley - "Not equipping to measure moisture in the air, or in the wood, is penny-wise but pound-foolish."

I vote Yes on getting one!

Not as important which one you get as just having one and learn to use it as you did with your other tools.

My guess is that that period of time with that thickness of wood would not get the MC where it should be for indoor use.

[John Keeton]

David, you don't have to spend that much to accomplish what you need, yes...need, for your shop. Lignomat, and others, make meters that are basic and affordable. This (http://www.amazon.com/Lignomat-Moisture-Meter-Mini-Ligno-D/dp/B000VIMGJE) is the one I have had for several years -
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XcZ6EnIAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
It does an excellent job. If you are going to be buying wood in the future, it can pay for itself quickly. I have looked at wood that was advertised as dry, put the meter on it and it reads high and the price goes down! Since I am going to store the wood, it is going to dry anyway, but at least I am not paying for dry wood and getting wet wood.

[Curt Harms]

If it's been air dried for 12 years, it has certainly reached EMC, which would be around 12% in late summer, 6% in a heated space in winter. And I'm pretty sure Kiln dried would be exactly the same once it's been out of the kiln for a few weeks or months. The kicker is the thickness, it won't reach emc for the environment as quickly as thinner stock. Yes, I have a moisture tester, the predecessor to the one that John K. shows. Mine has a row of lights instead of a digital readout. It still works. One thing I did read recently is that moisture meters are calibrated to read correctly when checking face grain, not edge grain or end grain. There does seem to be a little difference between reading in face grain and edge grain. Also bear in mind that pin type meters aren't checking all the way through the board, just as deep as the pins go.

[David Wadstrup]

Thanks for all the wise words -- I'll save myself the headache and get one. Unless someone really thinks a pinned type is better, I think I'll go with the Lignomat pinless that was recommended in the 2011 Tool Review.

Thanks!

[Darius Ferlas]

Both have their advantages.

I never considered one but then I got some 200 bf of green cherry so I needed to know how drying progresses and when the lumber is ready. No kilns in the area would dry for me such small quantity so I built a small solar kiln (about 380bf capacity). With a pinless I'd have to spend more time checking on the lumber. With one with pins I could set a couple of wires attached to nails driven into sample boards and sticking out into an external box. Connecting pins to the other ends of wires allowed me to do the checks in a snap.

I bought exactly the same one as John Keeton posted.

[Bill Davis]

And David when you take delivery of the wood stack it up off the floor and properly space it with stickers so it will dry evenly with all of the board surfaces exposed. A small fan to circulate air over the wood might help too.

[Bryan Morgan]

Harbor Freight has a pinned one for about 10 bucks. Works fine. Someone compared it to some of those really expensive ones and it was always the same or ~1% off. Has a few different modes but I just use the one with the little tree symbol for wood moisture. http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-mini-moisture-meter-67143.html

[John Coloccia]

I have a Delmhorst J-4. It's pinned and it has an analog readout (which I much prefer to digital). I personally wouldn't go back to a pinless meter. I have one of those too, a Wagner, and I'm not particularly impressed.

[lowell holmes]

I have a Delmhorst J-4. It's pinned and it has an analog readout (which I much prefer to digital). I personally wouldn't go back to a pinless meter. I have one of those too, a Wagner, and I'm not particularly impressed.

I like my Wagner. :)

[Bill Miltner]

Harbor Freight has a pinned one for about 10 bucks. Works fine. Someone compared it to some of those really expensive ones and it was always the same or ~1% off. Has a few different modes but I just use the one with the little tree symbol for wood moisture. http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-mini-moisture-meter-67143.html

I am glad your HF unit performs well, however I had the opposite experience. Tried two different units of that model. All were wildy inaccurate. Oh, sometimes they were right on, but on other occassions they were 6-8% off. I returned each one as defective and moved on to a more reliable unit.

[Bill Davis]

Interesting poll on moisture meters here (http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/forums/sawdry.pl?read=698862&poll_id=24&our_remote_host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.woodweb.com&main_action_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.woodweb.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Fforums%2Fsawdry.pl&poll_id=24&poll_24_page=1&question_71=489&question_72_491=1&question_72_493=1&question_73_494=1&question_73_499_variant=).