Moisture measurement (not again !!)

[juanboy2k]

Greetings one and all. I have been stacking up my wood, along a 300ft fence, 1 row; I split and stack it, and cover it with a bunch of old corrugated steel roofing sheets that used to grace my barn.

I have been intrigued of late by the discussions re: moisture content. However, I've not had much luck so far with this. I purchased a 69.00 Extech Instruments Pocket-Size Moisture Detector, Model# MO100, but alas, it measured relative moisture from 0 - 100. You have to use a table to interpret the % moisture. Not good. I returned that.

So now I have the $19.00 JT-2G handy Osprey model.

For wood that has been cut for a month say, is it likely that the ends will show up with very minimal moisture (like 0-5%)? It does appear to work, though, as poking it into the bark of some more green wood does send it up to 39%.

At any rate, is it best to disregard both the outer and end measurements, and simply measure from the center, by cutting it fresh when doing so?

Thanks ... and I do hope this thread isn't too much of a bother. (I did review the earlier threads and i'm more interested in the actual technique of using a moisture meter, I suppose).

john

 

[boostnut]

"At any rate, is it best to disregard both the outer and end measurements, and simply measure from the center, by cutting it fresh when doing so?"

Short answer, yes.

I have had the best results checking a freshly cut or split piece of wood, outside measurements tend to be very random. Grab your maul and head to the woodpile. Grab a few "samples", re-split them and measure the newly exposed side. Aaron

 

[juanboy2k]

Indeed.... I did split 2 different samples, one from a tree that died (as it were) from a storm on 6/4 or so, and another that is much older like felled last year). The former was 40% + inside as one would expect, and the latter was 29%.

I covered it today with my steel sheets to minimize rain fall issues and so I rather think I'm all set. Here's a pic of my stack ... 112 ft. long or so. I'll use about 2/3 of this this winter I suspect...

john.:greenchainsaw:

 

[juanboy2k]

Btw... I use black rubber straps to hold down the sheets so that the wind doesn't bother me over the winter. I also run a single layer of steel sheet along the TOP rail of the fence on the windward side (facing west) - left in the picture, so as to minimize a bit of the winter windriven rain effect.

Seems to work well ... but I'll know better hopefully this year with ye olde moisture metre.

john.