Moisture Meters- does anyone use them

UncleBillyKnives

UncleBillyKnives

Well-Known Member
I have a bunch of wood that has been sitting in my basement for the last few months and want to send it out to be stabilized. With my kids allergy's, I either have the air on or the heat, so it is always dry down there. In the past I have never checked the moisture content to verify that is under the 10% required and it turned out fine. does anyone verify the moisture content with a meter before it is shipped out and if so, what do you use?
 
Uncle Bill,
I have a virtual forest worth of lumber and had some stabilized recently too. I needed a moisture meter and took a chance on Harbor Freight's moisture meter. Guess what !!!!....it actually works. To me, it looked pretty rinky dink but did the job. It was cheap too. Who knew !

Rudy
 
I check the my wood before using it for a handle. I don't want it to check or warp on the tang and it's rather important when I get wood from a dealer who primarily sells to wood turners. It sometimes comes a little on the wet side or even sold green. What I got I would on Ebay but you can also probably find them in woodworking supply houses.

Doug
 
I purchased the Lignomat, Mini-LIGNO E/D on the advice of Mike at WSSI Stabilizing. For around a $100.00 Nice little portable about the size of a large cell phone. Comes with belt pouch. Work's great!
Very nice lady at the company when I called to place my order.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
 
I had a moisture meter for a while, then I got rid of it once I figured out how long it took to dry my wood in a dehydrator. Made my own with refrigerator racks some plywood, powered it with light bulbs to maintain a constant temp of 95 - 110 degrees. Only dried seasoned wood and kept it at temp for about a week, wrapped it up right away and sent it out for stabilizing. If you try and dry wet or green wood this way you will end up with a bunch of firewood !! I do not think you can just set your wood inside in a dry area and get it below 10 percent moisture, your wood will be whatever your relative humidity is.
Hope this helps,
Clint
 
A bit off subject, but have any of you ever tried boiling your wood? I take green, freshly cut, wood and boil it for a few hours, let it cool overnight in the water in which it was boiled. After that they are put on drip racks, allowed to air dry for a day then wrapped in news paper or put into a paper grocery bag. This cuts my drying time down from 6-12 to 3-12 weeks with minimal loss from drying issues. (learned this turning bowls and has worked for a few years now)
 
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