cedacwood

Can anyone recommend a good instrument for measuring moisture content of wood that is not too expensive (under $50)?

mpm1696

Type Moisture Meter in Ebay as well as Amazon. You get what you pay for and the better ones are over $50. If you have mostly rough-sawn lumber get the 2-pin or 4-pin type. There are some pinless meters, but is used mostly for planed lumber. And the last but far from the least, beware of moisture meters used in gardening (soil moisture) their meters range starts at 10% wich we don't need!!!

PS the best moisture meters used in woodworking are the Wagner and Delmhorst.
Pete

cedacwood

Thanks Pete,
can you comment on the PSI moisture meter by Penn State Industries? PSI has a 2-pin digital readout model for about $35. I have not priced the Wagner models, but Delmhorst start at about $150 which is more than I want to invest at this point.

Charles

mpm1696

I looked it up, seams a good deal, it's probably what you're looking for. PSI is a good and big company. I guess they can back up their warranty. The meter range starts at 6% is OK, most furniture for inside asks for 8% MC depending on where you live. I recommend you google search for Moisture content in wood, their are variants in temperature and others that sometimes need to be corrected in your meter reading.

For me, I do have a moisture meter, but barely use it; I have a chart that I found in some website, where you can expect a certain moisture content (MC), in your wood, depending on the temperature and relative humidity (RH) where your wood is stored. Ex: If you have 70F inside and RH is at 40%, that should equal to about 8% MC in your lumber.

I think I found this famous chart in something like the US department of forestry. Check it out.

Good luck

Pete