I was curious to how my silver maple was drying. Cut green, c/s/s about 6 months. Reads on average 15%. Same results on the white birch. Honey locust is at 24% Seems the wood really drys fast here.
Did you resplit the pieces and get your reading from the inside? or are you just taking readings from the splits as-is?
Resplit. With the grain. Started on some small splits first then grabbed the biggest splits I could yank from the stack.
You may have some increased drying times there because of the climate. More heat and drier air. Here on the east coast we get more humid air but the sumer breezes and daytime sun do well in helping dry. At least you know your in good shape and it's only the beginning of August
Well.... I pulled a huge birch half round from the stack whacked it open and pegged the meter.... I'm sure the fruit woods and softwoods are drying nicely. I'm thinking of taking my drier wood and building a holz hausen to open up my single stack row again for new inventory. No biggie if my wood needs more dry time. I planned on a stove install this summer and that idea does not look well on paper. Always next year.
I was just on craigslist looking at used (and a couple new) woodstoves for sale. All kinds up this way and price ranges from $200-3k. I'm doing a little research in order to post my stove for sale shortly. What are you looking for?
A quick Google of Amarillo says 89 degrees with 47% humidity. Could explain why your splits dry way faster than here. We've had a lot of rains this summer.
Amarillo seems to have an advantage over most of us in that it has lower atmospheric pressure, less precipitation, lower humidity, higher average temperature and higher average windspeed.... All good things for drying wood... Depending on your setup, the accessories for installation could cost almost as much as the stove.
I've been talking to a general contractor friend of the family. It should be a fairly straight forward install. Getting my homeowners insurance to approve the install might be an adventure though. Yes we have some prime drying conditions here. Feel free to drop off some oak for 18 months.
You do not need one, they are a nice toy to play with but one isn't essential. I'd say that a scale and sharpie are more effective tools in figuring out how your wood is drying. The only thing a moisture meter can tell you is the % moisture between the tines at the spot you prick, overall for a given piece of wood about the only thing you can learn is the content at different spots with repeated readings. With a little experience your personal heft-o-meter, or your hands, should be able to tell you if a piece of wood is dry. If you really want to know what is going on within your pile, making some observations with a scale over time can tell you how your drying is going and tell you if your wood is as dry as you can possibly make it when it stops losing weight. You can also learn the effect of direct sun/wind and rain if you get some before/after samples on pieces that are kept under different conditions. I'd rather know that my methods for stacking and drying make for the greatest amount of water loss overall, as opposed to the particular content as pricked at an arbitrary spot between 2 or 4 tines within a split.
