Lots of misconceptions, even in this thread, about wood and moisture. A meter will give you a frame from a video which continues until the wood joins the ashes in the garden or the other artifacts at the Smithsonian. John says he only buys KD wood. Well, it was
once 8 or 9 per cent moisture content, or at least the samples from that run showed an average of 8. In two weeks it's the same as whatever is on the shelf next to it (or the shelf itself), no matter where that may be. Hold it at 44 percent RH, and it'll stay at eight.
Dick says that different species have "wildly different" rates of expansion. It's a half truth, or maybe a bit less, as the orientation and interval of the annual rings are more important in dimensional change. If you get a meter, you'll find correction factors for various species, but the range is pretty narrow when compared to the basically 100 percent difference between face and quarter grain movement. Along the grain, well that's a really big number.
Back when we used to calibrate our meters on woods without known factors by cooking them dry and weighing. Greg's method of taking a suspected seasoned piece to the scale, and then a week later, if storage conditions have been stable, lets you know if the wood is at equilibrium. Don't care what the actual number is, because without intervention to dry the air around it or, as we are doing now in our 23 percent house, adding moisture, it's as good as it gets.
So follow the thousands of years of woodworking and don't build something that relies on stability of a material for its integrity. Store your lumber in nearly the finished dimension, in conditions typical to your region, and allow air access to all sides.
All of which, and more, is here.
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/products/publications/several_pubs.php?grouping_id=100&header_id=p Chapter four is excellent.
On meters, here.
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/products/publications/specific_pub.php?posting_id=16893&header_id=p
