Replies

1. 
   jackiechan | Dec 12, 2004 06:06am | #1

   Tom,

   Any wood that you use should be brought into your shop, stickered (stacked with spacers between each board), and be allowed to acclimatize to the shop's humidity level.  Depending on the thickness of the wood, this could take a week or two for thin pieces, to much longer for very thick wood stock. 

   Once the wood has stabilized, mill the stock slightly oversized to the dimensions of your project.  Then, restack and sticker the boards again, taking care to place the stickers in line with each other down the stack.  The wood must be stacked on a flat plane so that you are not introducing any bow or twist.  Sealing the end of each board will help to prevent checking, and weights placed evenly on the top of the stack will help to keep everything flat.  Let the rough milled boards equalize for a minimum of a few days (depending on thickness), and then mill to the final length. 

   Applying a final finish will help to reduce seasonal wood movement.

   Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.

2. 
   gb93433 | Dec 12, 2004 09:13am | #2

   Typically the smaller the log that the wood comes from will give more problems in lumber form. Birch logs are usually quite small. I was a lumber grader and Birch seldom came very wide and long. If you check a lumber yard or mill often Birch is sold select and better. Anytime it will grade select it can be a smaller board than FAS1F or FAS.

   All lumber for doors should be milled over sized and allowed to stabilize and then be placed on edge to allow air movement around the boards. I always cover them with a cloth or tarp to keep the sun off. If I notice that one of the pieces will not be good enough to mill straight then I do not use it.
   Aslo when selecting lumber it is best to pick lumber that has been circle sawn. If it circle sawn it is sawn thicker too. When you are selecting lumber use a moisture meter that has long prongs so that you can check the moisture in the middle part way through and on the surface. That measurement will tell you a lot about how it was dried.

3. 
   hammer1 | Dec 12, 2004 05:43pm | #3

   I think you are over complicating the milling process. When you flatten one face on the joiner, you don't need to get 100% of the face surfaced. Usually 75% is fine. When you plane to thickness, you need to take equal amounts off both faces of the board. Taking more off one side will almost guarantee cupping or warping. Plane the board to final thickness, don't leave some for later, this will just increase the likelihood of problems. I don't edge joint until both faces are to thickness. This allows running with the grain and using either edge to do so.

   I didn't mention stock selection. Choosing lumber that will be appropriate for the project is very important with doors. You have to look at how the board was sawn from the log as well as any defects or wild grain changes. Your stock should be 6 to 8% moisture content. After milling you should sticker the pieces to allow air to circulate freely around all surfaces.

   In your question, you are asking how to fix something that was improperly done. The fix is to do it right from the start. Correcting things at this stage is difficult since we don't know just what you did. If you did not carefully take equal amounts off both faces, taking more off the wrong side will just cause more problems.

   Building solid wood doors is not an easy project. Door manufacturers use laminated, finger jointed material and veneers to overcome the tendency of solid wood to move. If you want to build from solid stock, you need good stock and have to follow the correct sequence in milling. The steps you listed of, flattening the good face and joining the edge, then planing and joining the other edge are not in the proper sequence. You won't be able to get parallel width and you won't be able to reference the edge to the finished surface.

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

1. 
   TDHudson | Dec 12, 2004 07:20pm | #4

   Thanks for the comments -- I'm still learning and appreciate the input, especially on milling sequence.I did have the stock in my shop for several weeks prior to starting the job, and I was pretty careful on stock selection. Fortunately, I learned my lesson on the french door project, where I went to a hardwood supplier with a limited inventory of birch -- I now have a supplier with a very large selection. At least I must have done something right on that project, the doors (on my basement billiard room) have been very stable and work great.Anyway, I thought about it a bit and think the problem was that I had the stock sitting in the shop to get acclimated but it hadn't been properly stickered, it was lying face to face. I let the wood sit all day with good air circulation and it didn't move any more, then I re-jointed the concave side slightly to flatten it back out, planed it to final thickness and jointed the edges to final size. This morning it is still perfectly straight. Got lucky I guess.Onward. Thanks again for the help!