Hi all –
I am making some lumber core sliding doors for a cabinet and agonizing over the substrate material and method. I saw this on Instagram and wanted to see what y’all thought. The person posting it is a highly skilled cabinet maker and so I am pretty sure it is a valid technique. To me, it looks like the pine is glued/clamped together and there is cross banding going across the grain and them a final layer of ash going with the grain of the pine. From what I have read, I hear that the core should not be glued up (or have a few dots of glue and clamped together with tape to allow for micro expansion), but to my eye this is glued up and clamped tightly. I would love to make some lumber core like this, but just want to make sure I am not missing anything. Is it just that quarter sawn pine is so stable that you can get away with it?
thanks as always for any feedback!
Replies
The core can be poplar or white pine as long as it is properly dried. Micro expansion, never heard of that.
Yea- that was definitely a term I just made up on the fly, but they refer to what I was trying to get at here: https://www.finewoodworking.com/2015/09/30/curved-doors-simplified. That picture is wonderfully helpful by the way. Greatly appreciated. What book is that?
My reference in French style furniture and design book, Traité d’Ébenisterie :
Thank you!
I look for that book periodically. But it's always a little too pricey for me.
There is more that we need to learn from https://www.finewoodworking.com/forum
White pine is great for lumber core. If you can make it quartersawn, all the better.
Thanks John - much appreciated
Check out the Master Class on page 74 of the most recent issue of FWW (310). Tim Coleman has a discussion of this very topic, including leaving the core staves loose for micro-expansion. If it works for him…
Lumber core is for curved panels (staves)?
And flat plywood. I don't know how long they used it, but every kitchen in the 50s and 60s that I've seen used plywood doors that were all lumber core plywood. I never saw a door that wasn't still dead flat.
I see in post #2 he means curved doors. I'm following now.
“[Deleted]”
About 15 years ago I got 4 sheets of lumber core walnut plywood at an estate sale. I don't know how long the other fellow had them, but the two half sheets I still have are still perfectly flat. They were even numbered, apparently consecutive sheets when they were made.