using wood moisture meter

[kitisi]

I purchaed a mositure meter with pins but its very hard to puch in is there a secret to using one of these there was little instructions

 

[pencheff]

I purchaed a mositure meter with pins but its very hard to puch in is there a secret to using one of these there was little instructions

Are you trying to punch into long grain or end grain? I have a "Mini Ligno" meter and the instructions say to push the pins into the end grain.

 

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Unless it's a fresh cut, testing the moisture by pushing pins into end grain is a waste of time. That part of the piece of wood will always measure drier. For my segmented work, I usually rip the board and test the side grain inside. The device is measuring electrical resistance in the wood; if it's a fresh cut, the depth of the pins is probably not as important. If you can’t get the pins to penetrate enough to activate the “on†switch, then use an awl (or finish nail) to deepen the holes.

 

[Erwin Nistler]

I use a moisture meter on all my projects. I give much attention to having all the pieces about the same moisture. I measure flat grain near the middle of the piece.

 

[MichaelMouse]

I purchaed a mositure meter with pins but its very hard to puch in is there a secret to using one of these there was little instructions

Try this first EDITED to get some theory under your belt. That'll tell you why end grain, with less contiguous fiber is not reliable with pin-type meters.

Then ask yourself what you really hope to gain, as a turner, by using the meter. Since the vast majority of us T(urn)D(ry)T(urn) to protect our final shape from difference, and since the relative humidity is going to vary when the piece is taken from one place to another, you might want to consider a "good enough" approach. Any thick wood is going to have moisture differences inside to out, unless it's had extremely long adjustment time in a humidity controlled environment. TDT and let the fact that you've exposed mostly endgrain on a face turning take care of the the time factor. Week or two will equalize things. If you turn along the grain your equalization time will be much longer, but your overall deviation less on straight-grained pieces. The weird-grained stuff is entirely unpredictable.

Though not a turner of semented pieces, I'd say that it's not really so important to equalize small and/or thin wood. It's a percentage difference in dimension change, so the smaller the initial piece, the smaller the absolute change, and as it depends on the grain orientation, something you're going to alter individually by rounding and randomize overall by gluing up, you'd have to be a wizard to get something that would move much in a particular direction. Remember the weird-grained stuff? Same thing.

Anyway, think Roy not Norm, and build to hand work tolerance, not machine precision. It may be fun to know that the MC of the wood is as predicted for the RH, but allowing for dimensional change is one of the things we have to do as woodworkers, either that or keep our works in environments as tightly controlled as the Mona Lisa.

Hit the wrong button. www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr06.pdf

 

[hockenbery]

I use a pin meter to check air dried bowls. I finish turn bowls when the moisture reads 10-12.
I push the pins into the bottom which is face grain.
The pins in my meter have to go in far enough to depress the switch between the pins.
for really hard wood I use a small awl to make starter holes and lean on the meter.

If you are gluing for segmented work you need methods to achieve accuracy like Malcolm's.

happy turning,
Al