A Homemade Solar Lumber Kiln

(Page 8 of 8)

July/August 1982
By Edward A. Fassig 
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After driving. the electrodes into the wood, I simply press a button, which turns on a red light and activates a buzzer. Then I turn a knob until the red light goes out and the buzzing stops. When this happens, I look at the indicator mark on the knob, which will be pointing to a number on a scale that runs around the knob. Keeping this reference number in mind, I can then refer to a chart on the tester to determine the percentage of moisture in the sample (the chart has different scales for different types and thicknesses of wood).

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An electronic moisture tester is a fairly expensive "toy"; but I believe most serious woodworkers would find the device to be well worthwhile. By using mine, Iwas able to discover, for example, that the commercial kiln-dried planks available at the local lumberyard tested 17% rather than the 8% that was claimed for them. Now that doesn't necessarily mean the lumberyard folks were trying to cheat me. It's more likely that the extra moisture was simply absorbed from the air while the lumber was in storage. But how would I have known that without the tester?

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