Moisture Meters

[b.glass]

Does anyone have a favorite? I've been checking on line and Wagner has a model for $200 that looks pretty good. I didn't know they made pinless meters. This one checks the moisture to 1/2 deep and measures from 4% to 20% and it's the cheapest they had there.

[Pat B]

I bought a pin type years ago from 3Rivers but never used it. I gave it to a friend in Utah so he could be sure his wood wasn't too dry. I usually go by feel and sound for my moisture meter. The feel of the springiness of the wood and the sound of the tools as I work it. Most of my staves are a year or more old so they are pretty dry to begin with.

[George Tsoukalas]

I have a mini Ligno. It has pins. I use t throughout and I work a stave from floor tillering to first stringing. When I get a reading that's too high I stop and let the dry more. Jawge

[b.glass]

I haven't thought they were of much use before but I have alot of hickory and everything I have tried dosen't keep set at bay. I'm thinking a decent meter might help in the case of hickory.

Thanks for your responses.

[macbow]

Greg, I've had terrible luck with hickory. I broke one this winter. after it sat around for 2 months I was using it to check my scrapers. It weighed less than half what it did when I was working it.
Ron

[Art B]

I love hickory! Trick is to get it's M/C down to 6-8%. Heat treating helps with set along with good tillering.........Art

[b.glass]

I like hickory too. Or maybe I just find it a challenge. I want to master it I guess.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Bona- I saw moisture meters at Lowes a week or so ago in the tools section. I don't remember how much they were, but they were way less than $200 bucks. I'm thinking somewhere around $70 bucks??
Don't quote me on that, but while they were expensive it wasn't all that bad considering how much these things sell for. If I would have had the cash on me I'd have bought it.

[Igor]

I picked up a wagner L606 (retails for over $300) for $75 on the big auction site. No pins...works well.


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Glenn

[twitchstick]

I picked up a Ryobi from homedepot for $49.00 that doesn't have the pins. It seems to work for me but at this piont I wouldn't know a great one from an ok one.

[Art B]

A moisture meter isn't really the answer B.. You can buy a 6-7 dollar humidity/temp monitor and get set up to maintain the proper R/H and temperature for the correct M/C for your wood. You can build a hot box if you don't have one of those or you can achieve the correct M/C by reducing a stave to floor tillered dimensions and kept in the house, under the air-coditioner during the summer and a humidifier for the winter months.

For the latter, kept in conditions of 70-75 degrees at 35-40% humidity a floor tillered wet hickory bow will dry out enough to heat treat in 30 days.

But that same bow will take about a year of seasoning to reach it's full potentual.

So, get your wood dry to prevent set, tiller well, and don't get in a hurry. Just get ahead on your bow stock. Hope that helps........Art

[Eric Krewson]

A moisture meter has saved me a bunch of times.

I know anything I put in my drying box will check if it is above 16% MC, no mater how well it is shellacked. My meter tells me when it is safe to speed up the drying process.

Bunches of folk have stopped by my shop with wood they said was cut a long time ago, was very dry and ready to make bows from. My moisture meter proved them wrong.

Bottom line, if you make a lot of bows, cut a your own wood or even buy wood that is supposed to be seasoned, a moisture meter is invaluable.

I don't use the conversion chart for different species with my meter. All I have to know is when it reads 12% my osage is good to go.

I have had this pinless model for the last 15 years, well worth the 200+ bucks I paid for it.

 

[manfromthepast]

I've been involved in some mold abatement issues on buildings and have learned a couple of tricks with the the pin type models.  One thing you can do is to take your staves and drill and install two pan head style sheet metal or wood screws deeper into the wood at the same spacing as the pins on the monitor(obviously not in the area that will be in the finished limbs).  All you need to do then is touch the pins on the monitor to the screws in the stave any time you want and get the moisture content deep in the stave. This will give you a much better idea of what is going on throughout the stave rather than just at the exposed edges which dry more quickly.

[b.glass]

Thanks for all the info.

I have a hot box and keep a thermometer in it with a humidity meter on it. So it is probably my tillering skills and impatience that need improving.

But until then it would be nice to know that the moisture is right and the Wagner looks like a good one to go for.

Again, thanks everyone!