Not wanting to hijack the which moistuer meter thread, I’m starting a new one. I have a moisture meter, a Lignomat. I use it almost exclusively only when I’m looking at wood to buy from private individules. Aside from that, I don’t use it much, such as when I’m buying wood from my sawyer. Perhaps that’s a mistake.
Reading the which meter thread got me to wondering, how does everyone use their moisture meters?
Under what circumstances do you use your meter?
Do you use it to check your wood before starting each project?
Currently I have about a thousand board feet of two types of wood in my inventory, about 50% maple, and 50% walnut. I will add to that about 500 bf of cherry when I find the right deal on the right wood. Yes, I’m a woodaholic, but I can quit anytime I want…;-)
Seriously though, should I be checking my material every time I start a project (I currently don’t)? Am I not using my meter enough?
What tool do YOU use to check m/c, and how/when do YOU use it? What tables/data do you use to correlate your info with?
Thanks! Jeff
Replies
My opinion about a moisture meter is just that--my opinion! I have a Lignomat (mini???) that has two settings (for different species). I use it as a "relative" check to determine when wood has reached an equalibrium in its storage spot (be it the basement or upstairs in the room where the resulting project will go. I subscribe to letting wood "acclimate" to my conditions regardless of what I was told when the wood was purchased. When I stop getting variances on the moisture content, I'm ready to go with the wood!
I'm probably off in left somewhere in my method, and if anyone wants to correct me, go right ahead! I'll probably ignore all the suggestions and continue doing what I'm doing! The upside is, in my ignorance, I don't have joints opening or closing with the seasons, my drawers fit nicely and don't stick, doors open and close. The downside is some guys won't like my methods!
I can't use mine (Delmhorst J-Lite) at the lumberyard (pinned version), but I use it when I get the lumber for a project home, checking to see how close it all is to the same MC. I note the % in chalk on the boards. Then a week or so later, I check again. If it was all very close together to begin with, and it hasn't changed in 7-10 days, then I feel OK about starting to mill the wood. If there's wide variation to begin with, then I have to decide whether to try and get it all close, or get some more lumber.
When I do this check, I'll also check a piece of stock of the same species that's been sitting in the shop for a long, long time. Gives me an idea of what the stock might try to get to if left alone.
I've had my moisture meter for less than a year, so it's a new tool. If I'd had it early last year, could have saved some grief in one project, I'm sure. Of course, it'd be invaluable for wood that's air-drying at home, but haven't tackled that.
I have had a lignomat fo 2 or 3 years and the only times I used it were for flood remediation jobs where I had to confirm that the framing was dry enough to close up the walls. I build a lot of cabinetry and furniture and just never use it. I think about Ebaying it..... but I just cant do it.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
EDIT:::: Sorry Forest Girl I didn't mean to adress this to you.
Edited 6/19/2007 11:17 am ET by mudman
Jeff -- I use a pin-type Lignomat two ways: to check the way stock comes into relative stability in my shop, and to compare pieces of the same stock before starting a project. I really don't care about precision, just want to be OK with practical values of MC.
Jeff, I use a Wagner 210 in my new digs in east TN. to check when the mill cut wood is ready for first prep. Like two 5/4 x 10" x 10' sticks of red and white qtr. sawn oak that are almost ready to become boxes for my combination planes that won't require the skill of a mystic or advanced TETRAS to put it away and still close the cover.
The second is the wood for my shave horse. A dream when I worked out of a garage in NY. but it will be a reality after I saw, photographed, drew and measured my local sawyer's horse. He "chunked " out a 10' x18"eastern cedar log to slabs 5.5", 3" and 2" about 6 months ago. These will yield a horse @ 6'+ long and are currently in the 14 to 16mc range. The "dumb head" for the horse was cut " BY ME- MOI. " just last week on his big Woodmiser(full hydraulic to flip and powered travel) a black walnut log that yielded a 7" x 7" x 50" stick that now sits, waxed out, at 32mc awaiting my final move to TN. and Wagner to say when to start cutting it to working size.
The future use will be the trees,2 old growth hickory and 2 black walnuts that we will board out and store in the upper regions of my 12x20' highwall barn. I don't plan on ever again buying wood at dry -read high- finished prices.
Jeff, it's one of the best $260 tickets I ever spent. Paddy
Edited 6/19/2007 9:42 pm ET by PADDYDAHAT
Thanks Paddy and everyone else. I'm with you on the dry and high prices, I just 'cut' a deal with my sawyer to start buying all my wood in the green, will dry it myself. Cut my price by about SEVENTY PERCENT. That's the deal I've been looking for when I first got into this vocation. Don't know why it took me so long to figure THAT one out. Now that I have, I'm busy planning a solar kiln to build, to augment my air drying lumber operation. I figure I'll air dry my lumber till it reaches a certain, top secret MC level, then finish dry it in the solar kiln, again using a top secret process to bring it to working state of dryness. Even then I'll still have to let it 'season' in the shop to stabilize it..... You all have helped me a great deal in figuring out when to use my MC meter and how best to leverage the information I get from it. Many thanks to all....Jeff
Jeff,
If you have the time and the space to air dry, a kiln isn't needed. Once the wood is dry as it can get air drying outdoors, just bring it inside your shop and let it gain or lose a bit more water to reach equilibrium with your shop's humidity and you are ready to go.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
John, I thought the point of the kiln time was to kill any bugs that may infest the wood. Could it be that if there's no obvious evidence of bugs, then there's no need to sterilize the wood with heat?Thanks...Jeff
Killing off any insects in the wood is a side benefit of kiln drying but it is rarely the primary reason for running the wood through a kiln.
Boring insects are rarely a problem in properly air dried wood and many of the insects that are found in fresh green wood cease their activity once the wood is properly air dried. One of the most damaging insects that will infest dry wood are powder post beetle larvae and they usually enter the wood after it has been dried whether by kiln or air drying so kilning the wood is not a protection against them.
John W.
I have a Mini-Ligno that I use almost exclusively to check humidity on air dried lumber. Living here in (somewhat) rural MN, I have been lucky enough to aquire a lot of local hardwood (green ash, oak, black walnut); primarily thru storm damage. A local sawyer will cut larger logs into 3" billets which I dry and store in the lower level of a 150 yr old hay barn, I get under 8% in about 18 months, less with a long dry winter.
It's affordable, accurate, and fairly reliable. Hope that helps.
I have a LT 15 Woodmizer portable sawmill. I use my Delmhorst J-lite to monitor the moisture content of the stickered air drying lumber under my dying shed. When the moisture content reaches 12%, I pull the lumber off the stickers and flat stack it. I always keep a small inventory of the several species that I commonly use in my lumber rack inside the shop. I use the moisture meter to confirm that I am OK to use the lumber for a project. It needs to be 10% or below for use in my area (Southern US). I could not do without it.
I have a Lignomat. I check lumber before I buy, I do ask permission to use it since it is the pin type. If I am refused I don't buy there. I use it in my shop when I select wood for a project. I use it when I'm laying a floor. I've also used it when I've been offered free lumber that someone has had stored.
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