Reach the woodworkers who ACTUALLY BUY
Articles Forums Gallery Marketplace Videos

WoodCentral Forums

Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

Abingdon, VA – Tree Cutting & Portable Sawmill

Pinless Moisture Meters

Posts

Pinless Moisture Meters

#1

Pinless Moisture Meters

Don Stephan

Because the holes left by the pins sometimes is a problem, I am interested in getting a pinless moisture meter. The two I found searching the Internet are Wagner Orion 930 ($429) and Lignomat Ligno-Scanner SD ($289). Both are dual depth, meaning they can scan to middle of 1/2" thick and 1 1/2" thick wood, and both have correction factors for different species of wood. The Wagner comes with stand for auto-correcting, the Lignomat does not.

Anyone have experience with these or similar pinless moisture meters? Thanks in advance.

Re: Pinless Moisture Meters

#2

why do you need one

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I am curious where you expect to get $400 of value from a moisture meter? None of our numerous professional customers had a meter. They relied on us delivering a properly dried product and we relied on our suppliers to run their kilns reliably.

Both good assumptions. We bought one when we started drying large quantities of lumber but mostly I relied on experience in the initial drying and the oven method for final check.

Re: Pinless Moisture Meters

#3

Re: Pinless Moisture Meters

Yonak

The pinless meters depend on knowing the density of the wood to get an accurate reading. That's why the meter has to be set up per species. Unfortunately, densities can vary within some species enough to make the readings unreliable unless you have a good idea of the density. My experience with ash is that the density of any sample can vary quite a lot.

Re: Pinless Moisture Meters

#4

Re: Pinless Moisture Meters *LINK*

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

I've used an Electrophysics CT-100 for 20 years. Accurate and easy to use.


Meter

👍 This page answered my questions

Your vote helps other woodworkers quickly find the answers and techniques that actually work in the shop.