I see the pin type moisture meters selling from 19.95 to several hundred dollars. Does anyone have any experience with the low end moisture meters? Are they dependable and accurate enough to justify using them? I’m thinking of several models that retail for approx. 39.95. A waste of money?? Or a useful tool??
Thanks,
Jumpman
Replies
I've been tempted by those $35-$40 models too. What has stopped me has been the concern that, while they might be fairly accurate in the beginning, after a while, maybe a year, they might lose their accuracy or simply stop working. There are two good meters for the severely budget-constrained: the Mini Ligno (Lignomat) and the Timber Check. Both of these come under $100.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I'm a fan of the pinless meters. (I have an ElectroPhysics.) For me, the most important time to use a meter is when buying lumber, and I don't think it is kosher to poke pins into boards still owned by the dealer. Some say they are less accurate on rough sawn boards, but unless you are patternmaking or the like, getting within a percent or two is entirely good enough. Also, the pinless meters allow scanning many places on the board in short order to see if it has been evenly dried.
I think the ideal would be to have both, but if I had to choose, it would definitely be the pin type, for the reason given above.....you can measure the gradient, rather than the average. Different strokes for different folks.Cabinetmaker/college woodworking instructor. Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
What a loaded ?? I have the "Timber Check" made in Canada. Not being a luthier, .01% doesn't worry me. Most moisture meters work off the conductivity/moisture content of the wood, Species adjustment tables must be considered too. Where the tree grew, fast or slow growth. No two trees are exactly alike, Thank God. Anyway the instructions with the "timber check" goes into alot of detail. Tangential shrinkage, Radial shrinkage. Wood temperature adjustment chart. And I am completely satisfied with my meter . Bruce S.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S. Counter Sales, Tech Rep. http://WWW.EAGLEAMERICA.COM
Depends if you're a professional who can justify the cost of a good one, or a hobbyist where it would be helpful, but not essential. I have a cheapy that Lee Valley sells.....probably just fine for a hobbyist. I also have a Delmhorst that cost around $500 Cdn......no doubt in my mind which is more versatile or accurate, and has converters for a wider range of species. The cheapy only measures in 1% increments (so are you at 6.9%, or 6.1%?), and it's range is limited.....the Delmhorst discriminates to a tenth of a %, and has a much wider range. The Delmhorst has insulated pins that I can switch in there if I want to read deep into a thick board.....can't do that with the cheaper one. The Delmhorst is also a lot more rugged. I know FWW did an article a while back that implied that the cheaper ones were as good as the more expensive ones.....I don't believe that for a minute, and I found the whole article very questionable. I know that every sawmill or palnt I vsit uses Delmhorsts or equivalent professional grade tools.
But the question comes back to, do you need the better tool? Even the very best meters are only accurate to a certain point.....the most accurate way to determine moisture content remains the oven drying method, and lots of people use that as the main reference, and use the meters for more general indications.......all you need to do that is an oven (an old toaster oven is perfect), an accurate scale, and a little time. You do have to sacrifice some wood though.
Here's a link to how to do the oven dry method in case you aren't familiar http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/ch12.pdf
Many thanks to both of you for taking the time to reply. I'll sit down and read the data on the oven method, I had not seen the oven method for determining wood moisture content described before. Still, it's going to be hard to drag my oven around to the mill yards LOL. I'm going to have to buy a moisture content meter for field use. Since these meter's read the conductivity of the wood, has anyone thought to use a regular volt meter reading the resisitance of the wood and compare it to a scale? On paper seems like this could work. Food for thought, any electrical geniuses out there?
Jeff
Adrian has a good point (literally) with the insulated pins. I have been air drying some thicker stock, and it is nice to be able to switch to the insulated pins to see the moisture gradient. Using a pinless or uninsulated pins will provide an average moisture content through the depth of reading. Having a wide variety of wood species with internal calibration is a real timesaver, too.
I bought one for under $30.00 and used it until it started giving me trouble, different readings, different by as much as 5 percentage points, on the same board within a couple of minutes. I then tried a friend's Lignomat, he paid less than $100.00 when he bought it. It came with a conversion scale to use for different species of wood and gave uniform readings. I then talked to some musical instrument makers and flooring installation guys. Based upon all the homework I ended up with the $100.00 Lignomat, pin model. I've checked it against meters in the $500.00 range used by kilm operators, it is consistently within 1/10 of a percent. I'm very happy.
You all were correct. I ended up buying a Lignomat for about $120.00. I figured that like any other tool, I needed a quality tool I could depend on to do the job and last. That wasn't happening for $30.00. I like the moisture meter I bought very much. You know, it's funny. After you buy a tool, you quickly forget what you paid for it...except for the cheap ones!!
Jeff
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