How Celtic Designs Eliminated Moisture-Related Product Defects
Keeping moisture under control is key when building custom furniture, like this beautiful white oak bathroom vanity. Even the smallest gain or loss of moisture could cause the frame or joints to warp, drawers to stick, or more. Photo courtesy of Andrew Skeens of Celtic Designs
If you’re in the furniture-making business, you know how frustrating it is to build something—only to have it crack or warp before it reaches the client.
When it happens, you know the implications: the piece of furniture will be sent back, and you’ll lose the sale.
Andrew Skeens, owner of Celtic Designs, faced the same challenge when making oak tables on a production basis. We talked with him about how he solved this challenge and saved himself the cost of damaged products.
Keep reading to find out about:
The Problem: Cracked Table Panels and Lost Revenue
Andrew Skeens started Celtic Design 40 years ago in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The dry climate posed a challenge for furniture building, however. Andrew noticed that when he ripped lumber and used it for glued-up panels, the panels would sometimes crack.
As he researched, he discovered the issue:
The moisture content levels of the pieces of lumber weren’t consistent.
Since he made a lot of oak furniture, especially tables, the oak would typically come from wetter states like Wisconsin. When they arrived in Colorado, they would shrink over time, which caused cracking.
The occasional wet piece together with drier pieces was an issue that especially became noticeable when he was building extension tables that had one or two leaves. “I saw them move as much as a quarter of an inch in width,” he shared. “It would move back and forth depending on the time of year.”
He continued, “If you had one board that was a lot drier or a lot wetter than the boards next to it, then you would have a problem. In other words, the whole panel would shrink, but that would shrink more because it was wetter, and it would pull away, and you’d get a crack.”
If a table he shipped to a dealer ended up cracking, he knew what the result would be: the dealer would send it back and take it off his invoice. Not ideal!
Eventually, his concerns about cracking wood led him to a solution: using a wood moisture meter.
The Solution: Moisture Testing
For intricate flourishes, like in this newel post made of cherry wood, you don’t want to risk even a hint of moisture-related shrinkage or expansion.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Skeens of Celtic Designs
While researching why his glued-up wood panels were cracking, Andrew learned about moisture meters. He shopped around and purchased a Wagner handheld industrial meter.
He began testing his lumber as it was going through the rip saw to make sure the moisture content fell within 6–8%.
“6-8% is ideal because that equates to stability at about a 45% relative humidity. If you build a table out of lumber that’s about 6-8%, then in a 45% relative humidity environment, the wood’s not going to shrink much or expand much. It’s going to remain relatively stable,” he explained.
If a board of lumber for a glued-up panel didn’t fall into this range, he would remove it and use it for other projects where moisture content wasn’t as critical.
By taking this step in the process, he noticed a major difference in the final product:
“Our table cracking problems pretty much came to a halt.”
And this was truly a savings. In a manufacturing situation in which lumber undergoes many processes after being cut, problems only become more and more expensive as they move down the production line. The most expensive is when that finished product gets sent back by the dealer.
But with a moisture meter, he was able to eliminate those situations altogether.
Let’s look at why he chose Wagner’s meter for the job.
Why Andrew Chose Wagner’s Moisture Meter
A custom piece like this elegant china cabinet, made with red birch, requires precision in moisture measurement and management.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Skeens of Celtic Designs
One of the main reasons Andrew chose Wagner’s moisture meter is because he was looking for a pinless meter.
At the time, pin meters were the most common, but to him, they didn’t make sense. He knew that, in his own words, “slamming pinholes in every board” wasn’t great when building high-quality furniture. He appreciated that with a Wagner moisture meter, he could quickly and easily scan a whole board of wood—without damaging it.
Andrew also noted that the meter “stood up to hard use. It got banged around a lot.” But it held up, and though he no longer runs a major furniture production, he still uses the moisture meter once in a while when building products like table tops or solid wood countertops.
In his own words, “It’s one of my treasured possessions.”
Save Your Business the Cost of Callbacks
For Andrew Skeens and his business, a wood moisture meter was an invaluable part of producing a damage-free product and preventing expensive callbacks.
What kind of business do you have? Could a quality moisture meter prevent financial loss for you, too?
Visit our shop to find a durable, easy-to-use moisture meter that could make all the difference for your business.
Wagner Meters is a family-owned American business that aims to provide solutions in moisture measurement technology that will enhance the quality and value of each customer’s project. With an almost 60-year legacy of innovation, Wagner continues to be a resource for both individual craftsmen and high-performance commercial endeavors.
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