The Game-Changing Role of Advanced Wood Moisture Meters in Your Furniture Manufacturing Process

In any manufacturing process, the game is always to create the best quality products as efficiently as possible. And it’s no different when using wood for the cabinet and furniture manufacturing process.

One way to ensure the highest level of efficiency and quality is through moisture control.

To help you understand the elements of moisture control and the benefits it has for manufacturing, let’s look at:

First, let’s take a look at how moisture plays a role in wood manufacturing.

Wood Moisture in Cabinet and Furniture Manufacturing

Wood, in the tree or log form, starts out with a significant amount of moisture. The resulting lumber will always contain a degree of moisture, and once the wood is dried, it will gain or lose it depending on the environment. The amount of moisture in wood is called the moisture content (MC).

The MC fluctuates in the wood due to changes in the temperature and relative humidity that cause it to gain or lose moisture. It will only stop gaining or losing moisture when it is balanced with the air around it. This is called reaching equilibrium moisture content (EMC). It’s usually a pretty slow process.

If wood is run through the cabinet and furniture manufacturing process without controlling the moisture levels, you could be heading toward disaster. After reaching its manufactured form, it could do a number of things, such as:

  • Shrink or expand
  • Crack (a result of shrinking)
  • Warp (bending, bowing, cupping, twisting)

None of these issues make for a good product.

So, it’s vitally important to control the wood moisture levels. In the beginning, before manufacturing, this is typically done by kiln-drying, which dries the wood down to a certain moisture content as a good starting point for manufacturing.

Wood that is still too wet at the other end of the kiln-drying process will get a lower lumber grade than wood dried to the appropriate MC, or it might need to be re-dried.

What does all this mean for manufacturing?

Well, kiln-dried wood is a lot more stable than unseasoned wood. But kiln-dried still has the potential to gain or lose moisture. Checking the wood moisture content at different stages of the manufacturing process can help mitigate problems that arise from a fluctuation in moisture levels.

And one of the best ways to check the moisture is with a wood moisture meter.

Incorporating Wood Moisture Meters into Your Manufacturing Workflow

Adding a wood moisture meter into your workflow allows you to check the moisture levels throughout the process to be sure the wood is maintaining an appropriate moisture level. If you’re using it right, it’s quick and easy, hardly affecting your workflow.

Integrating moisture meters into your work also helps preserve your peace of mind and your reputation.

For example, suppose you are manufacturing small decorative end tables. The success of the tables will depend in part on even legs and flat tabletops.

In scenario A, a moisture meter is used to check the wood as it’s being fit together to make the table. If the MC is not on par with what it should be, the process can be paused until the levels are appropriate. If the MC is fine, the process can be continued.

Either way, the tables turn out as they should and customers don’t complain about the wood warping or cracking. These tables will last decades as decor.

Your customers will be happy with the durability of the tables, and they may tell others about your company, encouraging them to buy from you.

And because they are pleased with your product, they will not be returning it and asking for a refund or a replacement table—either of which costs you both time (having to make another table) and reputation (people don’t trust your products as well, potentially leading to a decrease in sales).

In scenario B, a moisture meter is not used during the table manufacturing process. And you don’t know that the wood is at an unusably high moisture level. When the tables are made and sent out, they lose moisture, and the wood shrinks and cracks.

The table looks unsightly. Customers will want a replacement table or their money back, which will cost you time and money. They may not recommend your products to anyone else, either, which isn’t good for your company.

Controlling moisture, then, is important for maintaining quality in your manufacturing and saving time, money, and reputation.

Incorporating moisture meters into your workflow isn’t difficult.

Think about the steps in your manufacturing process. What are the major steps? Planing, cutting large shapes, attaching pieces? Stop briefly before those steps to quickly measure the MC of the wood.

This way, you’ve double-checked before starting a major, irreversible change in the process.

You don’t have to perform moisture testing every step of the way (although more could be better!). However, checking at important steps can help protect your products as they are fashioned into their final form.

Picking the Best Moisture Meter for Your Needs

The best moisture meter for you will come with a few key features: it will be fast, accurate, and easy to use.

Fast

There are two basic designs for moisture meters: pin-type and pinless. Pin-type meters involve two pins that are stuck into the wood. An electric current flows between the two pins, creating resistance. The more resistance, the drier the wood; the less resistance, the wetter the wood (water conducts electricity well, hence less resistance).

Pinless meters, on the other hand, use a sensor pad on the bottom of the meter. This pad sends electromagnetic waves into the wood. The changes in the waves due to moisture indicate the moisture content.

For manufacturing, you’ll want the quickest type of measurement to keep the workflow moving smoothly. That would be the pinless meter. You don’t have to stick pins in each and every piece of wood and risk bending or breaking the pins if you’re in too much of a hurry.

Pins also go into the wood—so you’ll have holes in each piece of wood. But pinless meters only require a quick scan of the wood. No poking or denting with pins.

Pinless meters also take bigger swaths in readings than pin meters, allowing you to cover larger spaces more quickly.

Accurate

A moisture meter must also be accurate or it’s not worth having. Without an accurate MC, you may think you can safely move to the next step when, in reality, the MC is way off. An accurate meter ensures you’re getting a real result.

Under the umbrella of accuracy are a few features to look for:

  • Repeatability: This means you can take a measurement in the same place over and over and get the same result.
  • Calibration: A meter not calibrated is not accurate. Quality meters come calibrated, and once calibrated, they aren’t likely to become uncalibrated. But, in case they do, some meters, like the Wagner Meters Orion line, come with the ability to be calibrated right on the jobsite—you don’t have to send them back to the company to have them verified or recalibrated!
  • Species settings: Wood comes in all different densities and chemical makeups, and this affects the accuracy of the meter. An accurate meter comes with the ability to adjust for different species of wood, keeping it accurate with each type of wood you use in your manufacturing process.
  • Range of measurement: Depending on the use, wood may need to be measured down to low percentages like 5 or 6%. An accurate meter will have a range between 5 or 6% and 30%.

Easy to use

When you’re scanning multiple boards a minute, you don’t want to be stuck fiddling with controls or trying to figure out which button does what. You want something as easy to use as a fork and spoon.

The meter should come with clearly labeled buttons and a basic, uncluttered screen. It should also come with a detailed instruction manual.

Moisture meters weren’t always fast, accurate, or easy, however. Before we move on, let’s get a brief glimpse of how moisture meters have improved over the years.

Wood moisture meter technology

Wood moisture meters have come a long way from their early days.

The first wood moisture meters were called blinker-type meters, and they were designed in the late 1920s. They used a capacitor that charged as it came into contact with the wood. Each time it charged, the light attached to it blinked. The speed of the blinking indicated the resistance, which told you the moisture levels in the wood.

Within ten years, moisture meter technology had advanced to vacuum-tube meters. They used a vacuum tube voltmeter with a resistor to measure against the wood. These resistance meters formed the basis for all pin-type meters today.

In the 1940s, pin meters were available, like the ones used today. They resembled the blinker-type meters of the 20s in terms of using resistance to measure MC. Some, however, used four pins instead of the two today. These were the accepted way to measure wood.

Pinless meters were also developed in the years after, and Wagner Meters improved on them in the 1990s to create a highly accurate pinless meter. And before that, Wagner designed the first transistorized In-Line meter and the first non-contact In-Line meter. In-Line meters are designed for measuring moisture content during the sawmill process.

Learning From the Pros at Wagner Meters

Wagner Meters jumped into the game early on to create quality, high-performing wood moisture meters. Now, we’ve been designing meters for over 50 years to help you control your wood’s MC and continue to manufacture quality products for your customers.

We offer a wide variety of moisture meters to cater to your specific needs. For manufacturing and other industrial uses, we have the following products:

  • L600 series moisture meters. Any of the meters in this line are great for measuring large amounts of wood. The meters come with a bigger scanning plate, an ergonomic handle for faster scanning, and the ability to measure deeper thicknesses.
  • Lumber stack probe sensor kits. Coming in 26- or 40-inch lengths, these attachments are meant for the L622 moisture meters, and they allow the meter to reach deep into a stack of wood and locate any moisture that may be hiding there. It is built for robust conditions and can even be used inside a kiln at 200° F (93° C) or more.
  • Smart Logger. This handy tool can be positioned in a room of stored wood and silently take readings of ambient conditions—relative humidity and temperature—sending the data to your phone via Bluetooth. If a moisture problem appears, you can look back at the Smart Logger (it stores up to 1,200 readings) to find the evidence. It won’t tell you the reason for the moisture problem, but it will give you the data necessary to track down the reason.
  • In-Line meters. For larger mills, Wagner provides an In-Line meter to measure each board on a conveyor, automatically taking readings of the lumber and analyzing whether they are adequate.

When you buy one of our products, you’re not only buying the physical product: You’re buying a whole team with it. Our team is just one phone call away in case you need help, want advice, or have a problem.

Improve your production

Every manufacturer wants to increase both efficiency and product quality.

As we’ve shown, one of the best ways to do that in the cabinet and furniture manufacturing industries is by controlling moisture levels with a quality moisture meter—one that’s fast, accurate, and easy to use.

When are you improving your manufacturing process with a moisture meter? Check out our L600 series and all its accessories now!

Last updated on August 13th, 2025

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