Moisture content of hardwood from a lumber supplier.

[drodda]

What numbers should a person expect from the raw hardwood boards they purchase before it gets equalized in your shop? I am waiting on delivery of my new moisture guage but was wanting to know what numbers I should be getting for Kiln Dried wood.

[handh]

Dave,

It should be in the 6 to 8 percent range for kiln dried lumber.

[rhfurniture]

What wood and size?
Bought some 3inch kiln dried teak from holland a while back that was 20 to 30 percent in the middle. Cross cut and pin measure is the only way I would trust. You americans do tend to bake your wood mind, judging from the USA oak we get hereabouts.
R.

[harryball]

It depends on a few factors, but basically I look for about 10%, anything over 14% I won't accept. We're in Georgia and even after equalized I get 9% to 10% in the summer. Now, kiln dried 2x4's from the depot read about 8% until they sit in the shop, it actually increases and that's one reason we have so much trouble with lumber warpage here.

Robert

[drodda]

4/4 cherry, oak, walnut, maple


Thanks for the info, it's much appreciated

[elcruisr]

Ralph, are you sure that teak was kiln dried? Most teak never sees a kiln and 3" would take forever to properly kiln dry. Most teak is air dried or advertised as "Dried" since it used to take years to make it from harvest to market in the past. Now I notice the moisture contents on it have been creeping up with more efficient processing.

If I remember right the kiln drying standards in Europe are different than here and yes, sometimes I think it's a bit overdone!

[knight_toolworks]

I had to check every board I bought. the tools I built if the wood was even 3% different from the wood in my shop they cracked or pulled apart. the fastest way to check I have found is to have test blocks of each wood and use a pinless meter to compare them. check the test block check the new wood. fast and easy. a guy brought me some blocks to cut and after routing two of them I thought man this sawdust is damp and the blocks pinned my meter. hope the survive to dry ok.

[rhfurniture]

Eric,
Yeah - it was KD. Dry as toast on the outside, and blotchy the way teak goes, but I wouldn't call it case hardened. I think they bring it in "shipping dry", and shove it in the kiln to get it on its way, expecting the boatyard to have it in store for a year or two. We had some 4inch, which was even more so, so we got them to send 2inch instead, which was kind of OK. Long gone are the days when timber yards would have acres of air drying lumber (in europe anyway - except for the odd small diehard).
Had some 1inch usa white oak once that had been baked so hard it chewed it's way through 3 of my favourite mortice chisels.
R.

[jay_p]

What about the difference between pinless and pinned meters. Any opinons there?

Jay

[rhfurniture]

Bought some 1.5inch Chestnut because of a good reading from a cheap pinless meter - it was 25percent in the middle. With pins, I check it at about 4mm deep, then really bang em in to about 10. If the reading is markedly higher I investigate further.

R.

[knight_toolworks]

a good pinless goes about 1" I like them because you can check a whole board in seconds and leave no marks. a good wagner is a good choice. been using mine for 6 years on the first battery.

[drodda]

I am waiting on the arival of my new wagner pinless meter. I bought the digital proline meter. I hope it at least gets me some information to start trying to figure out what is going on with the wood I am getting lately. I got a tracking number today so it should be here later this week. I have seen many cheaper meters however I have read a few good reviews on this one.

[terryd]

Just to pipe in before I call it a day. Drying lumber is more an art than science. If you find a mill that does it right then stick with them regardless of the percieved premium. How the lumber was dried is just as important as how dry it is. I've had hard maple at 12% stay perfectly straight when building doors and have had other mills supply me with 8-10% lumber rhat twisted and checked. I had a 500 bf load of 10' 4/4 x 8 cherry last year that checked out @ 11% MC that when we started to rip it on the saw split clear down to my hands in an instant. Wound up cutting the whole batch into 2" staves and gluing up a counter top for a lawyers office 2" thick 24" wide. The thing slit before it even left the shop. When I finally nailed the mill owner he confessed that the pushed the drying and went from the saw to my shop in less than a week. When I resawed the beast I checked the MC every couple of boards and at no time did I get readings more than 12%. Case hardened my a*s this stuff was baked. $4000 education the hard way. Now I stick with one small local mill and he determines what I use. If he tells me he can't get cherry then I don't use cherry or I will chance outsourcing the doors. Woodweb dot com is were you should co-habitate if you want to live in this neighbourhood of raw lumber fact and fiction.

[knight_toolworks]

I have been very happy with my older wagner. it is plenty accurate and I need accuracy. my only complaint was depth as it would not tell me enough about 8/4 cocobolo.