finding MC --

[Christopher Hunter]

Hey everyone,
just another dumb question,,
but I have a few small pieces of walnut that I cut about 6 months ago and are about 1" thick and are only 4" wide and about 12" long...
I don't have a gram scale or moisture meter, but I was wondering what I could do to dry them or find out their MC...
anyone have any ideas???

I would like to use them in a segmented form but don't want to risk the form in case they are not dry enough



any help would be great ...
Thanks
--Chris

[George Tokarev]

Moisture meters provide interesting, but scarcely relevant information for woodturners. Weigh a chunk of the wood at hand at the grocery or post office, or blow the thirty bucks for a good diet scale today, note, weigh after three or so days. If the conditions have been stable and the wood ditto, it's as dry as you'll get it in the current relative humidity, which is all you can do. Doesn't mean it won't gain or lose and move accordingly in the future, because it will, but your control over the future extends to slowing the rate of change with finish, or controlling relative humidity in its environment.

If you're interested in what the EMC of wood is for various relative humidities, you can check out the wood handbook at http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm for a table.

Get a gage to measure relative humidity. It'll help you dry your wood.