Seasoning Wood

[regulate34]

I go by how it burns. any hissing of oozing its not dry enough

 

[AIM]

I gotta ask ya spidey. What use would it be to have a MM that you can calibrate to wood species etc. Who cares wether its hedge or box elder. A MMs job is to gauge the moisture in whatever you poke it into. It doesnt care wether its a hunk of elm or your armpit.
20% or less seems to be the magic number that the world wants to see in ANY kind of wood and I am pretty damn certain the meter has NO idea what it is testing. Ya its a gadget but I am willing to bet it can gauge the actual moisture content better than any of us.. (even you)
No I dont use one. I could care less what the moisture reading is with what I am burning but I can see where some people might see one as valuable.
It does its job. It tells what the moisture is at point of contact. Same as a voltmeter. Tells you the volts wherever you poke it. It doesnt know nor does it care what its being poked into. If there is voltage it reads it.

 

[haveawoody]

CTYank,

Just that one year and just for about 1 month at the start of shoulder season.
Had to burn hardwood for the first month, softwood burnt with a craziness.

I've never experienced that same thing of wood dryness but it was the year of endless summer right into the end of Oct with little rain.
I cover stacks year round with a top layer of clear plastic to shed rain so I guess long dry summer made for very dry wood and the greenhouse effect of that top sheet added to it.
No long summer this year to worry about the same problem, this year was winter then spring now winter again LOL

 

[Whitespider]

No matter what Spidey says... preaching without a license again.

A license ain't required to point out the facts and sight sources that support them.
Here's a much more recent thread, that got a bit more involved, and I do exactly that... read all of it, including the references...
http://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/general-moisture-meter-on-sale.265791/
Where's your license to dispute them??

A MMs job is to gauge the moisture in whatever you poke it into.
It does its job. It tells what the moisture is at point of contact.

No... that is not correct.
A MM does not "gauge" moisture at "point of contact"... it measures electrical conductance between two points.
I'm not gonna' re-post what's in the thread linked above; but if you take the time to read it, you'll see you're wrong.
*

 

[Spawn]

Definitely get yourself a moisture meter and make sure everything is bone dry. Don't forget batteries. On your way back from the hardware store grab me a case of Rolling Rock and a bag of donuts.

 

[Sawdust inspector]

Ok I don't have a MM. If I was to get one, what is a good kind and how hard do I need to bend over if I was to buy one of these "gadgets" gonna run me? I've always looked at the end for cracks or watched it in the fire for pissn water?

 

[angelo c]

Spidey...I agree with your points...but im gonna go off in a "theoretical tangent"...

What if a MM could measure the MC between two points deep into the wood...like say drilled 3" into the wood then two probes inserted and measure conductivity between the probes...that might give a real MC eh ?

sticking two points into the surface of a piece of wood and expecting to get a MC from the center is funny.

 

[Whitespider]

What if a MM could measure the MC between two points deep into the wood...like say drilled 3" into the wood then two probes inserted and measure conductivity between the probes...that might give a real MC eh ?

Only if the electrical conductance that particular species of wood, at the various moisture levels, is known, and could then be calibrated into the meter, or if a reference conversion chart were provided... and you'd still need to do a temperature correction calculation (unless that was built into the meter and somehow incorporated into the calibration).
*

 

[angelo c]

Only if the electrical conductance that particular species of wood, at the various moisture levels, is known, and could then be calibrated into the meter, or if a reference conversion chart were provided... and you'd still need to do a temperature correction calculation (unless that was built into the meter and somehow incorporated into the calibration).
*

hear ya...but even with species there are so many mixed species if the data needed to be that specific it would need to be tree specific too. not just species...

 

[Whitespider]

hear ya...but even with species there are so many mixed species if the data needed to be that specific it would need to be tree specific too. not just species...

Well... if you could calibrate (and the better, more expensive meters can be) at least you could be relatively confident that result would fall in the same ballpark 95% of the time.
But you are correct... the only way to be 100% positive of the moisture content is to weigh the piece, oven-dry until it stops losing weight, and compare the before/after results.

Here's is a link to a moisture meter that can be calibrated to wood species, and will also do temperature correction using the optional probe... but it ain't $30.oo...
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/protimeter/moisture-meters/bld5604-timbermaster.htm

And here's a link to the calibration chart used with it...
https://www.emlab.com/m/store/Protimeter Calibration Tables for Wood.pdf
*

 

[Sawdust inspector]

Are they all that expensive?

 

[svk]

Well... if you could calibrate (and the better, more expensive meters can be) at least you could be relatively confident that result would fall in the same ballpark 95% of the time.
But you are correct... the only way to be 100% positive of the moisture content is to weigh the piece, oven-dry until it stops losing weight, and compare the before/after results.

Here's is a link to a moisture meter that can be calibrated to wood species, and will also do temperature correction using the optional probe... but it ain't $30.oo...
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/protimeter/moisture-meters/bld5604-timbermaster.htm

And here's a link to the calibration chart used with it...
https://www.emlab.com/m/store/Protimeter Calibration Tables for Wood.pdf
*

Well then there's the challenge. Someone needs to buy one of these and test it against the cheapie MM's.

 

[Whitespider]

Are they all that expensive?

L-O-L ‼
No‼ You can spend a lot more‼
If you noticed on that chart, many of the species we firewood guys cut ain't even there...
And did you notice the disclaimer??

The calibration data in this table are based on standard tests by oven-drying of commercial samples of the various wood species, between 7% and fibre saturation. Above fibre saturation point (25%-30%) readings are approximate only and generally apply to wood that has dried and been re-wetted.
The instrument is calibrated for wood at 20°C (68°F)

*

 

[Sawdust inspector]

Ya I red that while laughing. Just courious about the price and if people use them and trust them

 

[haveawoody]

I think someone needs to buy a decent mm that can measure properly.
I know I get more moist each beer but that's just a feeling

 

[Ironworker]

I have one of those $30 ones and it worked fine and was pretty accurate, it was consistent anyways, but after a couple of years it just ain't worth the cost of the batteries. I cut and split and about a year or so later I burn, works for me, we're starting fires not building satellites.

 

[woodchuck357]

I bundle firewood and dry is better customers that want a pretty fire to set by. Need good dry wood to get the greene wood some clown sold them and told them it was seasoned. Last Jan / Feb I sold thousands of bundles to people to get there greene wood started. I can kiln dry greene Ash down to 14 to 15 % any thing below that is a waste of time in the kiln. I can cook out the water in a rank split stack and sticked. The reason it is no reason to dry below 15 % is they stack the bundles in cold garage or patio or out side so it stays at 15 %. I can cook the water out of 2 ranks of firewood in 24 hours. I don't dry wood I cook the water out of it like a low profile pressure cooker. I bring the temperature close to lighting just a low discharge to push out the water out. I have to keep working with my heat and discharge fan to not waste heat and the proper discharge of air to pull moister out. (remind you I only do Ash the King of Firewood my customers love that wood)

The more I read your posts it seems more energy is used to dry the wood than would be lost burning it at a higher mosture content.
Did you mean that you keep wood heated to near the ignition point of dry wood? And you use pressure? Using vacume will draw moisture out faster with less energy.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

What if a MM could measure the MC between two points deep into the wood...like say drilled 3" into the wood then two probes inserted and measure conductivity between the probes...that might give a real MC eh ?

sticking two points into the surface of a piece of wood and expecting to get a MC from the center is funny.

That's why you split, the "split", and then take a reading that will now be from the center....

SR

 

[angelo c]

That's why you split, the "split", and then take a reading that will now be from the center....

SR

Copy.

 

[AIM]

OK spidey I guess I wanna ask. (I think I wanna ask) (I might not really wanna ask but I gotta ask)
How far off are these cheapo non calibrational MMs compared to the "good" ones? You must know or you couldn't call them worthless gadgets or whatever term you have used. Are they off 1%----5%----20%??? There must be an average????

O God and please dont just say that it depends on species. There just has to be an average that you are aware of....