Which Moisture Meter???

[Martin Penning]

Thanks, Dean!

[Martin Penning]

Thanks, Dean. Good advice.

[Martin Penning]

Thanks very much for the information, John. Very helpful! Although I’ve had a small Jet lathe for a while now, I’ve really just turned pens up to this point. I plan to turn peppermills for the kids this Christmas, so that is my immediate concern and don’t want them going out of round before Christmas! That said... I am just now starting a “wood pile” and am interested in building a supply of wood to turn! Thanks again!

[Martin Penning]

Thanks, Reed😀😀😀!

[John K Jordan]

... I am just now starting a “wood pile” and am interested in building a supply of wood to turn! Thanks again!

I started serious wood collecting about 15 years ago. I get free green wood, process it into turning blanks, wax the ends, and stack on wire shelves to air dry. Some of the dogwood, holly, persimmon, and others I'm turning now have been air drying for over 10 years.

I also buy exotics when the price is right, scrape the wax off the sides, and put them up to dry too. Last I checked there were over 125 species in my turning storage area.

Do you have a bandsaw? If you start now and process a little every few months, before long you'll have far more dry wood than you can use.

ambrosia_maple_IMG_20171202_141342_010.jpg ambrosia_maple_IMG_20171202_175922_594.jpg drying_B08.jpg rack1_2_IMG_5762.jpg

JKJ

[Martin Penning]

John,

I do have a bandsaw. You’ve given me something to shoot for! Not sure I have enough years left to put something like that together, though!

Thanks for sending!

[Alex Zeller]

It's really hard to get into turning wood when you have to wait for the wood to dry before you can finish it and see the results. Those who have been doing it for years and now have an endless supply of roughed out bowls sitting on a shelf have moved past that phase. I have a General non-pin type meter but I haven't used it yet. I doubt it's that accurate. My best advise is to get a used microwave. Around here the dump has a free section that will have one or two. With it you can dry a few pieces to speed the process up to help balance the need to get stuff roughed out and drying and getting the satisfaction of seeing the finished project.

I have several dozen bowls drying on a rack. I bought a stainless steel scale off ebay for $25. I think the company is called Smart Weight. It was one of the larger scales I could find that would also measure lighter weight objects. After rough turning I write the date and weight on the bottom of the bowl. About once a month I weigh them to see if they are still loosing weight. Once one seams to stop loosing weight I'll use the moisture meter to see what it says the bowl is at.

[Martin Penning]

Thanks, Alex!

[Dean S Walker]

You would be surprised how fast you can load up shelves with blanks. I like some of the exotics and like john buy when on a good sale if funds are available. That being said, there are a lot of great woods here in the good ole USA and in a place near you. All you have to do is look for it. You can normally find arborist and most will let you take all you can haul off. I absolutely love milling up wood. I like to see what is inside. Wood that is not normally found in supply houses. A couple years ago a friend was taking out a ornamental type tree, not sure what it is but I got a couple chunks of it. I lost a few to cracks, free fire wood, the others made some pretty nice gouge handles. It was hard and nice to turn. great stuff. it stabilizes great and I use some of it in chuck and tooling type items. The point is, when someone is trimming trees or removing them all you really need is a chainsaw......................................that is until you get a little obsessed then you have 3 saws a chainsaw mill and need to build a 10x20 shed to store your wood in. I got a bunch of nice burl from a redbud tree, the wood is beautiful stuff. I learned that this stuff likes to ring crack I think it is called, so mill it up and get the ends sealed quickly. Point is it does not take much time at all to build up more than you can use but if you have a few friends that do the something you can get some trading going on and that's fun too. The Joplin area is full of great trees just look around.