Moisture Meter ??

[Bruce101]

Can anyone tell me if there is value in purchasing a moisture meter?

Carba-Tec advertise one for $79 as below.

"Single range moisture meter that gauges between 8% to 22%. Working on the electrical resistance principle, this instrument is ideal for comparative moisture readings on most common wood species. Requires one nine volt battery (not included)."

Question ................. Should I or Shoudn't I. ie, would the money be better spent elsware?

[Cliff Rogers]

I don't own one but I am interested to hear any comments.

[Brown Dog]

Hi Bruce

Im looking at getting a cheap moisture meter aswell....I did bid and win one on ebay for 99c..thought I got the bargain of the century... but now the bugger selling it has decided its all a "mistake" and doesnt know how it got listed. Its not my fault that no one else bid on it:U . Outcome of this is still pending because he has been paid :~ .

anyway check out ebay they come up quite often you might be able to get something similar to the carbatec one for a bit less.


cheers
BD:2tsup:

[Sprog]

I bought one on Ebay, about $29 from memory. It has 4 probes and came with a 9v battery.
I do not think they are incredibly accurate but they do give an idea as to the wetness of the wood. Probably better on thinner wood as they are only testing the surface resistance.
I tried it on some turning blanks that I have had drying for years and it reported the blanks were dry :-)
Tried it on freshly felled timber and it went to the top of the scale indicating the wood was wet :-)
Tried it on a few pieces of pine in Bunnings and received various readings of wetness as I would have expected from the timber in Bunnings.

For $29 I thought it was a reasonable buy and quite useful.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Personally I think a good set of scales is more accurate, but I wouldn't mind owning a good MM, especially for testing new acquisitions. It can be a right PITA having to wait a few weeks before re-weighing to find out I could've turned it straight away. :rolleyes:

I won't buy one at the prices I've been seeing... however if a CT flunky accidentally tagged one of their Merlin "scanning" MM's with a $79 price-tag I'd be all over it like a rash! :wink:

[Cliff Rogers]

Scales are the go if you have something that you are drying.
That is what I use now.

A MM would be good if you had just bought or were considering buying timber/blanks & you wanted an idea of how dry they were.

[Bruce101]

Thanks All !!

Love the responses and info that comes from this forum.

Thanks for the suggestion to look at ebay and while there are a number advertised from China, (rightly or wrongly) I am hesitant to send money overseas.

There is a digital meter (EM4G) advertised by an ebay firm in Adelaide (Ozmestore1).

Link : http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WOOD-MOISTURE-METER-NEW_W0QQitemZ250100455716QQcategoryZ42938QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Any Comments re this instrument ???

[tashammer]

and one can always calibrate the moisture results by doing several comparison tests with the dry and weigh method.

As far as the little meters go, are they measuring conductivity, resistance, capacitance of the material between the probes or what? If you are stuck with one that has fixed distance probes on the end of the case and you test a slab/log/etc and hit the 3 driest spots (say the log had been resting on something absorbent) but the rest of the log was damp/wet, what then? Would it be more useful to have meters that measure over several fixed distances? (the distances of say 1", 12" 3', 6' - these are just for arguments sake - would have to be calibrated, else what the readout showed would be all over the shop and useless).

well i googled and there are a few:

http://mannix-inst.com/index.php?section=temphumidinstruments&subcategory=moisture

seems to cover a wide price range.

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20070327133310AAsV4PK

asks the question "what about those cheap moisture meters?" and comes up with:

...For woodworking/drying your own lumber before use, or for evaluating moisture issues in walls/floors, etc, I would do one of two things- 1) Wait until you can invest in a decent quality meter, or 2) Get access to a high quality meter and use it to calibrate your cheaper one. Not all of them have user-accessible adjustments, but you can build a cross-reference chart for your specific meter...

[himzol]

Thanks All !!

Love the responses and info that comes from this forum.

Thanks for the suggestion to look at ebay and while there are a number advertised from China, (rightly or wrongly) I am hesitant to send money overseas.

There is a digital meter (EM4G) advertised by an ebay firm in Adelaide (Ozmestore1).

Link : http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WOOD-MOISTURE-METER-NEW_W0QQitemZ250100455716QQcategoryZ42938QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Any Comments re this instrument ???

Can't comment on the moisture meter, but I just picked up a lathe from these guys and they were really easy to deal with. Pick up and payed in the same day.

[rsser]

A good meter works if it's calibrated correctly for the timber you're testing - readings vary by timber density.

The cheapie's are really only useful for taking comparative measures of the same lump, say a roughed out green bowl. You write the result and date for each successive measure and when it stops dropping you've got EMC.

[echnidna]

Ive got one of those carbatec $79 meters and it works ok.

I've never bothered calibrating it to get precision results as I only use it as a guide to emc.

[China]

In my experiance a moisture that that sold for $79 would very likely be little more than a toy

[rsser]

Well I use mine in the way I outlined above and it's useful and reliable.

[soundman]

Every time this subject comes up the same stuff gets bashed arround and someone " who can afford a good one" says the cheap ones are useless.

WELL

Most of the cheap pin type moisture meters certainly are much more than a toy. BUT they are not a precision instrument.
The will give a much better impression of moisture content than simple handling & inspection ever will.

you can poke a piece of timber and know reasonaly well....... hell that reads 20%...... that looked & smelled dry.... its not, or.... that reads off the scale on the dry end.... it probably pretty damn dry.....and so forth.

no there are no calibration tables.... and so forth

BUT for a hobyist they can be very usefull, for a professional they can be a handy item for bashing arround the yard...... if you want the truth get out the good one that now is getting less wear & tear.... and therfore likely to stay in calibration.

Nobody is saying these things are serious test instrument for accurately assessing moisture content of timber.

No body would ever claim that a steel tape measure was a precision instrument..... but for lots of work they are accurate enough.


By the way
I can still lay my hands on this http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=36956&highlight=moisture+meter moisture meter and do the same deal.

cheers

[glock40sw]

G'day.
If you want a moisture meter that works and has a reputation within the timber industry, contact Mark Heath at The Moisture Meter Company in Coffs Harbour. He sells Wagner and Delmhorst meters that are the best you can get. Sure, they will cost you a bit more than $79. But it is like the old saying... $10 helmet for a $10 head.

[Tony Morton]

Hi Bruce101

My grand father told me meny years ago about forty when he worked in timber industry early last century, the way they checked timber for dryness/seasondness was to cut 1 inch off the end of piece and run an idelible led pencil over the fresh cut if the line didnt run the timber was seasoned.

Cheers Tony

[martrix]

Moisture Meters (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=38723&highlight=moisture)

[Bruce101]

Mornin' all,
I am extremely grateful for all your thoughts and in one way or another, I would suggest that all have great value.

At least now I know that the general opinion is that the 'el-cheapo's', while might not be regarded as an instrument are probably useful as a general guide particularly when used as a means of comparison for a piece of timber.

I am also interested in Tony's response as in many instances "it's an 'oldy' but a 'goody' " does prevail. I intend to try it.

I agree that using scales are probably most efficient, but I'm afraid my patience would not allow the time to run the checks plus I would have to purchase a good set of scales anyway.

So, in absence of the means to purchase an expensive MM for my purposes it looks like an 'el cheapo', at least for a trial.

Have ordered an EM4G from Ozmestore1to try. For those interested, I will post an opinion (definatly not a professional) re it's use at a later time.

Thanks all

Bruce G.

[chrisb691]

Okay, so I've been reading the thread (and previous ones) with some interest. However, I am somewhat confuses by the issue.

Regardless of whether you are using an expensive unit, or a cheapy, the MM measures moisture vey close to the surface. So how does this relate to the moisture level in the centre of the blank. Obviously, the bigger the blank, the further the distance from the centre to the surface, where the moisture level is being measured. :?

[Bruce101]

[quote=chrisb691;491335]Okay, so I've been reading the thread (and previous ones) with some interest. However, I am somewhat confuses by the issue.

Regardless of whether you are using an expensive unit, or a cheapy, the MM measures moisture vey close to the surface. So how does this relate to the moisture level in the centre of the blank. Obviously, the bigger the blank, the further the distance from the centre to the surface, where the moisture level is being measured. :?[/quote

--------------------------

Good question Chris. Answers/opinions anyone????

[glock40sw]

G'day.
Resistance Moisture meters use pins. The good quality ones have pins that are coated and only read at the very tips of the pins. This allows you to drive them in to different depths and get readings at these depths. Thus letting you read case and core moisture content.
capacitance meters use a reading pad. The Wagner L612 will reliably read to a depth of 50mm. The reading obtained will be an everage through the piece, and case and core testing cannot be done with these meters.
However, The Merlin Cap meter allows you to set the reading depth from 5 to 50mm. I have not done enough testing on this meter to give a reliablity report.

[Bruce101]

Thanks Trevor.

I guess I'll just play with this one & see what results.

Ta all.

Bruce

[chrisb691]

Thanks Trevor.

[Bruce101]

Mornin' all,

............. So, in absence of the means to purchase an expensive MM for my purposes it looks like an 'el cheapo', at least for a trial.

Have ordered an EM4G from Ozmestore1to try. For those interested, I will post an opinion (definatly not a professional) re it's use at a later time.

Thanks all

Bruce G.


Hi again!

Well the above was ordered and delivered (in very good time and conditions I might add), and I have 'played' with it for a couple of weeks.

I believe 'Soundman' hit the nail on the head. His comparison using a Tape Measure analogy is pretty right ie - it's not an instrument' .... but none-the-less, very handy.

I have found it very good simply using it for comparison purposes, ie take a reading, then after a couple of weeks, take another. It's quite surprising results.

As to that particular meter, I have no way of knowing it's accuracy or consistency so I make no 'educated' comment. I will say however that you must be very careful of the 4 pins. It appears that they are of a very cheap metal as already they tend to curl when pressing into any reasonably dense timber. But none the less, I find it very useful at the moment.

Thanks and regards to all for comments.


Bruce