Moisture Meter

That's rarely a problem here in the desert, but I have a similar two pin meter. Oddly, this is a much improved version of the original moisture meter for plants that was invented and patented by engineer Harry Wayne, who recently passed away after building a company that made dozens of electronic vision training devices. He was still creating original devices well into his 90s.

I also use a cheap 2 pin meter. Below 12% is the figure I’ve always heard.

I use a Harbor Freight and never been wrong.

Herb

Herb Stoops said:

I use a Harbor Freight and never been wrong.

Herb

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how do you know???

Stick486 said:

how do you know???

Click to expand...

Got 2 of them and they both read the same. How do you check yours?
Herb

built in...
and there's plan ''B''....

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Stick486 said:

built in...
and there's plan ''B''....

.

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I don't use particle board.

I thought I was wrong once...but was mistaken.

Stick486 said:

how do you know???

Click to expand...

I use a puddle of water, if they both read 100% they must be good.
Herb

I've always thought that a moisture meter is a fancy way of reading resistance over a specified distance. I wonder if a multimeter could be used as a substitute?

I would say yes Gary. You could drive two nails in a board and connect the meter to them and get a reading but besides the spacing between them being important, you still need to convert that to a moisture level somehow. If you also had a moisture meter I suppose you could build a graph

Isn't the idea to have the wood at the annual average moisture content of the geographical location where it will live? This will make sure that the wood neither expands or contracts too much during annual changes in the relative humidity.