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I have an inherent mistrust of wood moisture meters, or rather hobby or craft ones, I had one and the moisture readings were incredibly unreliable when compared to the industrial meters we had at our factory. We used to buy in supposedly kiln dried. To complete the drying process we kiln dried the wood for six weeks. Once it was dried if it was to be fir rated it was put in a vacuum for twenty minutes and the vessel was flooded with a magnesium chloride solution and the pressurised for twenty minutes. The pressure chamber was drained and a vacuum reset abolished for a few seconds to remove excess moisture. The slats, at 25mm thick we're then placed back in the kiln for another six weeks to get the hrs down to 14% max.

I find it impossible to believe that the centre of a decent size blank could be dry other than after a significant period or either air or kiln drying, but as always I remain open to being convinced!

<blockquote data-quote="Neil" data-source="post: 56527" data-attributes="member: 120">I have an inherent mistrust of wood moisture meters, or rather hobby or craft ones, I had one and the moisture readings were incredibly unreliable when compared to the industrial meters we had at our factory. We used to buy in supposedly kiln dried. To complete the drying process we kiln dried the wood for six weeks. Once it was dried if it was to be fir rated it was put in a vacuum for twenty minutes and the vessel was flooded with a magnesium chloride solution and the pressurised for twenty minutes. The pressure chamber was drained and a vacuum reset abolished for a few seconds to remove excess moisture. The slats, at 25mm thick we&#039;re then placed back in the kiln for another six weeks to get the hrs down to 14% max. I find it impossible to believe that the centre of a decent size blank could be dry other than after a significant period or either air or kiln drying, but as always I remain open to being convinced!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Neil, post: 56527, member: 120"] I have an inherent mistrust of wood moisture meters, or rather hobby or craft ones, I had one and the moisture readings were incredibly unreliable when compared to the industrial meters we had at our factory. We used to buy in supposedly kiln dried. To complete the drying process we kiln dried the wood for six weeks. Once it was dried if it was to be fir rated it was put in a vacuum for twenty minutes and the vessel was flooded with a magnesium chloride solution and the pressurised for twenty minutes. The pressure chamber was drained and a vacuum reset abolished for a few seconds to remove excess moisture. The slats, at 25mm thick we're then placed back in the kiln for another six weeks to get the hrs down to 14% max. I find it impossible to believe that the centre of a decent size blank could be dry other than after a significant period or either air or kiln drying, but as always I remain open to being convinced! [/QUOTE]

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