{"id":2432,"date":"2013-05-30T15:45:13","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T20:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=2432"},"modified":"2013-05-30T15:48:08","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T20:48:08","slug":"moisture-meters-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/30\/moisture-meters-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Moisture meters, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1085_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

2. Taking the readings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether a moisture meter<\/a> or your blood pressure, if you don’t take the readings properly,<\/strong> they won’t mean much. So let’s take a look.<\/p>\n

Pin meters:<\/b><\/p>\n

The pins must be inserted and held in<\/strong> without backing off, which will create a small air gap, or cause the spring-loaded activation button to release. This can take considerable force,<\/strong> especially if using longer pins. Though longer pins are available, even big hammer-in probes for some meters, I almost always use the default pins on my miniLigno<\/strong> that penetrate about 1\/8″.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pins at the left in the photo penetrate about 1\/4″, and even those are difficult to push into dense woods, and I find they tend to break.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1083_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

One of the advantages of a pin meter<\/strong> is its ability to check precisely for a moisture gradient<\/strong> through the thickness of a board that has not reached uniform equilibrium moisture content. In the photo at the top,<\/strong> my pinless meter, which has a measuring depth of 1\/2″, could evaluate just about the full thickness of the 1 1\/8″ Claro walnut<\/a> board. Remember however, those would be readings of the average<\/i><\/strong> moisture content in the measured volume of wood. By crosscutting the wood,<\/strong> then promptly<\/strong> comparing pin readings taken in the end grain<\/strong> near the surface and near the center of the board, a moisture gradient can be detected. The same can be done, sometimes with dramatic results, in a stick like the 16\/4 Doug fir in the photo.<\/p>\n

I have found little or no difference in pin readings taken along versus across<\/strong> the grain. Furthermore, there is usually little or no difference in the readings for most species whether the meter is set on “wood group” 2 or 3 on the miniLigno meter.<\/p>\n

Pinless meters:<\/b><\/p>\n

Readings are best taken on a smooth, flat wood surface<\/strong> with the length of the sensor aligned along the grain.<\/strong> In the photos of the cherry board, below, my Wagner L609<\/strong> meter is reading 9% with the sensor along the grain of smooth<\/strong> wood, but 7% on the immediately adjacent rough<\/strong> surface. It read 11% with the sensor placed across the grain<\/strong> of the smooth, flat wood. These relationships are typical. Note also that if the wood surface is not flat<\/strong> in any case, the readings are likely to be relatively underestimated.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1081_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1082_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

At the lumberyard,<\/strong> you probably won’t have the luxury of reading off a smooth surface, but at least you can make comparisons between similarly rough boards.<\/p>\n

Pinless meter readings must be corrected for the density<\/strong> of the species. Some meters allow this to be programmed in<\/strong> before taking a set of readings, but with my meter I must hassle with having to add or subtract an amount based on tables in a little booklet that comes with the meter.<\/p>\n

By the way, do not measure thin wood<\/strong>\u00a0in the manner as shown below, unless you want to average it with the moisture content of your workbench!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1084_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

Next:<\/strong> In part 3 of the series, we’ll look at important factors that affect the readings, especially for pinless meters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2. Taking the readings Whether a moisture meter or your blood pressure, if you don’t take the readings properly, they won’t mean much. So let’s take a look. Pin meters: The pins must be inserted and held in without backing off, which will create a small air gap, or cause the spring-loaded activation button to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-2432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wood","tag-moisture-meters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2432"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2451,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432\/revisions\/2451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}