<<I am scheduled to put a new board into an old Mason Hamlin 5'6" this spring so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.>> This is your own piano, right? BTW 4.5% is Death Valley for spruce. Chris Robinson keeps track of his moisture content by throwing the board's trimming into the hot box along with the panel. Anytime the panel comes out, a trimming scrap gets tossed into the kitchen monkeywave. Weight after successive runs through the oven cease to drive it further, divided by the weight before the mwave equals EMC. Well no, that's not exactly the fiormula, but EMC can be inferred from it. (Of course each time a scrap has been pushed down to 1% EMC, it's no longer reliable as a test piece. ie., Be sure to have enough scraps to cover all the times at which you want an EMC reading.) Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter, PTG "If you are in a dilemma about where to park your car, ask your hostess. If she is engaged, ask some responsible person who can indicate a convenient spot" Betty White's Teenage Dance Book (paperback, 1959)
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