I’ve been having trouble with table tops and extensions warping. Doors swelling. I work in hardwoods. It doesn’t happen all of the time but it can go through stretches at a time. I Know I must be doing something wrong. I don’t know if it’s the wood, the wood grade, climate or just human error. Are there some guidlines I can use to minimize this. Thanks for the help.
Chuck.
Replies
Chuck,
Wood moves, but it is totally predictable and controllable once you understand how it works.
Fine Woodworking has run articles on wood movement over the years that should help you out, a search through our index should turn up several articles.
The standard reference on the subject is Bruce Hoadley's book "Understanding Wood", it isn't easy reading, but you'll know all you ever need to know about wood movement after reading it. The book is published by the book division of Fine Woodworking, and can be ordered from somewhere on our site.
John W.
Edited 7/18/2007 6:09 pm ET by JohnWW
Chuck.
John is right, but I can point you to a few references on our site that will help you quickly get to the bottom of wood movement.
To begin, we have a category on our site called "Wood Science" that we specifically built to address the issues of wood movement. Browse through some of the articles on that page.
The first one you should read is Christian Becksvoorts article called Understanding Wood Movement. It discusses the practical effects of wood movement on furniture construction, and well help you avoid many of the common mistakes woodworkers make.
If you have more specific questions, write back and I'll see what else I can dig up.
Matt Berger
Fine Woodworking
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled