moisture meter question

[pete00]

Howdy

Was going to spend the 30 bucks or so on a moisture meter until I checked my “monopoly account†the allowance from the wife I get to play with. Yea I know what all you manly men are saying…but that another story.

Then I got to thinking, if all a moisture meter does is check the resistance in wood, why wouldn’t a regular volt or multimeter work, I happen to have a few of those.

So what I would do is, take a piece of green/raw/wet wood, set it to some resistance scale, put a probe at each end and take a reading.

Let it dry on its own, microwave, soak it or use one of the other methods around. Then use the same piece of wood with same scale then take a reading. If it was drier the resistance should have changed. If I did this a few time until the resistance didn’t change wouldn’t that tell me the wood was a dry as the environment?

Each piece of wood would have different reading but the end results should be the same.
I’m comparing only the same piece of wood to itself.

Is this right or am I smoking wacky weed………..

electrically challanged pete

 

[Dario]

I am much more electrically challenged than you but sounds like your idea will work.

Best way is to experiment...try it on all the wood you have around (dry and wet) and see. I would love to hear your findings []

BTW, as part of your control, you probably should keep a uniform distance between probes on your tests.

 

[JimGo]

I'm pretty sure that's all they do with the moisture meters is to measure the impedance; the more water, the higher the conductivity (i.e. lower impedance) generally. I agree with Dario's comment about the distance, since you want to remove as many variables as possible. I might go the opposite route of you, though...I think I'd measure some dry wood first, then see how the impedance changes as you increase the moisture in the piece. The dry pieces should be roughly whatever % humidity you have in your area of the country at the time the measurement is taken, so you can at least have that knowledge when you start. I'd also stick with the same species of wood as much as possible. Things like oils, grain structure, and the like may also impact the impedance.

 

[ed4copies]

"Things like oils, grain structure, and the like may also impact the impedance."

Since I don't have a moisture meter, do you have to "tell it" what species you are working on, or will it tell you the percentage without knowing the type of wood?

I also have lots of multimeters, so I am real interested in this concept!

 

[pete00]

searching to find answers this place is interesting..


http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/MeasuringMonitoring_Moisture_Levels.html

 

[coach]

I bought one on sale from Harbor Freight for I think $19. You might try that one. It works well.

 

[pete00]

coach
thanks for the info, but now im on a holy grail to find some answers.

How do you use yours. Do you just turn it on and stick it into the wood.
Is the any calibration first, did they give you any charts of wood types,
do you need to convert anything.....ok im done