Moisture meter ? Which one to get ?

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LandfillLumber

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Hello, I want to get a moisture meter and I'm willing to spend a little money to get a good one can anyone head me in the right direction. I've seen the cheap ones on ebay for 20-30 bucks , but have seen others from70-100 that look much better made, then you have the 200-300 models that are out of my range. Any info. would be great. Thanks, victor
 
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Victor,

I have a Wagner MMC 220 but it is over $250 so out of your price range. I really like my Wagner though. It is pinless and has been trouble free and accurate. I have been pleased with it. I believe Wagner makes some that are closer to your price range.
 
Lignomat is one of the oldest and most respected moisture meters for wood. I believe, however, that they are all pin-style testers, if this is a turn-off for you. They aren't cheap--upwards of $100 or so, if I'm not mistaken.
 
I have one from PSI that is several years old and quite happy with it.

Ron

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We were in our local Rockler store a couple weeks ago looking at moisture meters. They had an el-cheapo from PSI for $40, the expensive one for $200 and the Lignomat for $115. The PSI didn't work for crap. No consistancy, hard to read and had to push too hard on the spikes and they were larger diameter. Their expensive one was more than I wanted to spend, yet it was not consistant. The lignomat was easy to read, came with two sizes of probes, worked every time and was consistant. It also had two settings which I need to read up on. I wouldn't buy the PSI if they paid me to use it. I look at it this way, if I am working something like mallee and it is going on a Statesman that I get $125-$150 for then I want something that is acurate. I don't want to test a blank and have it read between 8% and 12% and find out a month after I turned it that it was the higher end. The lignomat would read to a tenth of a percent. Well worth it in my book.
 
I'd like to revive this thread. I too, am looking for a moisture meter. But my price range is about $100 bucks. Anymore opinions out there? TIA
 
Steve check out Heartville Tool.

They have the Mini Ligno on sale for $89.97

This is the one we got and it is a breeze to use. Heck I bet even Cav could figure it out! [:p]
 
Hello, the cheap $28 model from E-bay works okay, but I would not trust it for furniture work. I still buy my wood kiln dried for anything I will use for furniture grade projects. I will get the lignomat when I can afford the $100. I think Rocler or Woodcraft also had it on sale(the lignomat). Thanks, Victor
 
Steve If you are only concerned about moisture levels in small pieces of wood , spend your $100 or less on a digital scale capable of reading to 2 gram accuracy up to 5 kilograms . Weight changes are a much more accurate indication of moisture equilibrium . No change in a couple of weeks should mean that the wood is at equiibrium with your current conditions - but maybe not with your driest possible conditions - which could be important if the wood has never been down to that level . I won`t work wood unless it has been weight stable for at least a month in the Dec - Mar period , which is when my relative humidity is lowest . It usually equates to &lt;6% moisture here in central Alberta . Wayne
 
Actually the Ligno has a self calibration feature. If you do not trust that, take it to Lowes and stick it in a 2x4. Kiln dried wood should be 6%

Mike
 
I have a mini ligno E, works super good for me. I do find the problem with these units is the 3 ranges of readings. Depending on the type of wood you may have to make corrections to the reading for the true number, also the temp correction.

Ed
 
Originally posted by MLKWoodWorking
<br />Actually the Ligno has a self calibration feature. If you do not trust that, take it to Lowes and stick it in a 2x4. Kiln dried wood should be 6%

Mike
Click to expand...

Hate to tell you but at least here in Texas, framing lumber is only kiln dried to 19%. I am a custom builder here and buy thousands of BF of SPF or SP lumber and it is all 19%. The stamp will even say KD 19 meaning kiln dried 19%. It may be different in other parts of the country though.

It is actually a problem for me as a builder. We build the house with this lumber and once it is finished and the AC is turned on, the lumber starts to shrink as it looses moisture until it reaches EMC (equilibrium moisture content) which is around 11% I believe. This causes most all of the drywall cracks that are blamed on the house "settling".
 
Thanks for correcting that Curtis. I guess I just assumed that the 2x4s were 6%, I know the oak that we buy from our mill is, which is what we double check our meter on when we don't think the reading is correct. Sorry about this mis-information there.

Mike
 
Originally posted by MLKWoodWorking
<br />Steve check out Heartville Tool.

They have the Mini Ligno on sale for $89.97

This is the one we got and it is a breeze to use. Heck I bet even Cav could figure it out! [:p]
Click to expand...

Nope, they don't carry it, or at least I can't find it.
 
Go to lowes and test some of the trim grade oak/maple and clear grade pine. The 2X4's will have a little higher moisture content by a few percent. That oak/maple should come out at about 6-8%. Your location had a part in it as well, I'm just learning a lot about drying wood(looking at getting my own small mill this spring if all goes as planned, fingers crossed). Good Luck, Victor
 
Originally posted by MLKWoodWorking
<br />Steve here is a link to the Ligno at Hartsville.

http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/12487
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Thanks Mark, my search term was too strict I guess or their search engine sucks. Probably the latter.
 
Steve,
I don't think you will be disappointed. Also the spare longer pins are located in the battery compartment. The only thing we have a hard time is determining group for woods not listed in the two categories. Basically looking at the lists the softer woods seem to be group two and the denser harder woods are group three.

Mike & Linda
 
Originally posted by MLKWoodWorking
<br />The only thing we have a hard time is determining group for woods not listed in the two categories. Basically looking at the lists the softer woods seem to be group two and the denser harder woods are group three.

Mike & Linda
Click to expand...

I might be able to help with that one. Several times I have called the company to find out what group wood A falls into. This last time they told me they are using a chart from one of the higher end meters ( not sure of the model number) However if we could find that out and get that chart it should list all the woods we use.

Ed
 
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