I am building a hutch out of qswo. The stiles are 5/4 finished thickness, 6 feet long and 2 1/2 inches wide. I bought some well figured 6″ wood by mail order that came delivered nicely planed and jointed. Immediately upon cutting the stiles, however, the stiles and bowed alot, (and warped too).
My question is, should I go ahead and use the wood on the assumption that clamping M&T joints and inserting pegs to work out the bowing during assembly, or should I save the wood to be cut down for smaller parts, and start over trying some other pieces.
And is the problem that I bought inferior wood, i.e. not dried properly or something like that?
Even though I was really looking forward to making some progress today on this project, I am going to tear myself away to find out what the experts advise.
Thanks in advance for any responses.
Replies
These pieces being 6' long pieces, the chances are pretty good that any further machining at their present length right now will result in more warping/cupping/etc.
There's a fair chance that the wood wasn't properly dried, but there's also at least as good a chance that the humidity level in your area is significantly different from the area the wood came from. Letting it adjust for a couple of weeks will solve the problem, if that is what the problem actually is.
And there's a chance that you ended up with "reaction" wood; if that's the case, your best bet is to cut it into smaller pieces that won't warp (as much) and use it for another project.
I'm not sure that I would want to try to "clamp it down" in the hope of the joinery keeping it straight. That will induce a lot of (unnecessary wood) stress into your project; the joinery will eventually fail; probably a lot sooner than if you were using straight, unstressed boards. Repairs will be difficult, at best....
A couple of suggestions that might help:
1) Let the pieces sit (stickered) in your workshop for a couple of weeks to bring them into equilibrium with the area; that may straighten them out some, or at least keep them from warping any further.
2) Once they have adjusted to the area you're in, try cutting them to shorter lengths/narrower widths about where the "bend lines" are; that very likely will take care of the warp, and you should be able to machine them into boards needed for your project (or a future project).
3) Try to take about the same amount of wood off each side when machining; no guarantees, but it often significantly reduces or eliminates cupping and twist.
Cheers!
James
Edited 6/2/2006 12:07 pm by pzgren
Your post raises several questions:
Did you buy kiln- or air-dried wood?
Did the seller specify its moisture content at time of shipment?
Bowing is one of several different kinds of warp. How severe is the distortion? Are you sure it's bowing? Could it be crooked, cupped, or twisted?
How long did you allow your newly purchased wood to acclimate in your shop before you started cutting?
Do you know what its moisture content was when you received it? Is now?
How/where are you storing it?
Since you haven't entered any information in your user profile, where are you located geographically?
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
Farkel, save yourself some heartache and ge some more lumber, its hard enough to do it right with good stuff. Sometimes a piece of wood has too much tension in it and it will not stay flat .
It's funny that your posting name is Farkel because when something like you've described happens to me I say "Well, farkel this" as I chunk the wood in the bin to be burned.
Sound like you've been given the fickle finger of fate.
Edited 6/2/2006 4:25 pm by John_D
You will have no success in getting the wood to straighten by joining it. (DAMHIKT) ;-)
Some posters speculate that your wood is at a different moisture level than your shop. I'm not sure I buy that as the source of the problem. This issue would not cause the wood to warp immediately on cutting. More likely, ripping these boards relieved internal stresses in the wood, allowing them to bend when cut. While reaction wood can cause this, I've seen perfectly straight-grained wood do this as well. In such cases, I think it's a problem caused improper drying as opposed to stresses built up while the tree was growing. Either way, it's achedemic -- you'll never get it straight short of ripping it, re-planing it and re-joining it. Trying to join it up as is will only cause future, much worse, headaches. In my shop, it's either kindling or cut down for use as much smaller pieces.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Mike Hennesy is correct in my opinion. You have reaction wood. Do not use it for the hutch.
mike
It sounds like you are getting some good advice,,,,,,,,, maybe,,,,,,,, since it is all over the place, the hard part is figuring out which is right.
First, if the board is laying flat on the bench, and the curve is up or down, that is bow. If that is what you got, you can surely use that for the style of the carcass, because the sides will straighten that easily. Since you don't say how much, you may even expect the hinges to hold that out of the outside door styles.
Crook is where the board warps to the side as it lays on the table. Since you say you started with 6" and you needed two at 2 1/2", you had an inch to straighten each half on the jointer with if you had ripped it down the middle, or at least somewhat over-sized, so that is your mistake that you should learn from.
If two of them are fairly straight, and match well together, let those be the two center styles.
Reaction wood is not that hard to spot in lumber. If you buy it in the rough, it will always have some fuzzy splinters on the face. Even if it has been planed, there will be some fuzz unless there was exceptionally good milling, and even then, you should be able to tell by a slight darkening of color, and less luster than the wood around it. If I have lumber with that in it, I just cut it out and throw it away. Even if you can straighten it out, it may change later, it is hard to get to finish the same, and it is brash. Meaning that it is prone to abrupt failure. It is not nearly as strong as normal wood,
Here is the end of the story: Since I did not have enough long wood make all new stiles, I went ahead and used the warped, bowed wood for the two sides. There are three side rails on each side, and I used big fat 1/2" m&t joints to join the rails to the stiles. They all pounded together fairly easily and squarely, and the bow, which had been at least 1/4", bent back into shape, which I find surprising since we are talking about 1 1/4" qswo. When I take the clamps off, only very small gaps open up -- about 1/32". When I glue it up, I intend to pin the joints with steel screws (to ensure that the wood remains un-bowed), and then plug the pin holes with square ebony plugs. I never thought this would work. The more I learn, the less I know. This time the magic worked. Other times it don't.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled