The typical multimeter is not sensitive enough to use as a moisture
meter for wood.

There was an article in one of the mags a while back on it.

And, there has been a discussuion or ten on the subject over on
Taunton Publishing's 'Knots" forum. You might try going there and
serching for the threads.

On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:01:32 -0400, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:


"George" wrote in message
.net...

"John Grossbohlin" wrote in message
...
For the electrical engineer types amongst us:

Figuring that moisture meters are measuring some dimension of electricity
is there some way a multimeter could be used for measuring the moisture
ratio in wood? ...maybe with the application of math after taking a
reading of some property of the electrical current passing through the
wood?

Curious...


http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr06.pdf If you're really
curious. Thousands of megaohms. Plans in FWW from way back.

More important to understand the concept of EMC than have numbers.

I'm very curious about how this works... I was sort of hoping for a "yeah it
can be done" or "it won't work" type answer before spending any more time on
this curiosity, but the references are good too. ;~)

In the past few weeks I've ended up with nearly 1,000 bf of rough cut, air
dried wood, from four sources... about 60% of it was free and the rest I got
for $1 bf. About 20% of it is cherry, 20% walnut, 20% white oak (much
quarter sawn), 30% clear pine, and the remainder red oak and other hardwoods
(maple, ash, hickory). Most is 4/4 to 5/4, 6-12" wide and 8-12' long. Some
of the walnut runs about 10" wide and 5' long. Some of the walnut and white
oak runs up to 16/4. I think I did OK for $400...

Much of the pine will go to serve Boy Scout and Cub Scout needs. For
example, I made up about 450-500 carving blocks and a box full of bench
hooks for their camp Handicraft program. Then their are the Den projects and
possibly new patrol boxes if suitable for the chosen design.

Being practical, I figured that I'd probably have the same problem with a
moisture meter as I have with my metal detector... dead batteries whenever I
need it... it sits for months at a time. Since the multimeter gets used
regularly I keep fresh batteries in it and if it could substitute for the
moisture meter I'd be covered without having another gizmo laying around.

I down loaded the PDF and checked the FWW directory on their web site... I
have most of the issues cited so I hope to "get it" shortly!

Thanks,

John