I had a problem crop up I’ve never experienced in all my years making chips. Any opinions will be welcome.
I’m building a new kitchen. My wife wants solid cherry doors, so I’ve glued up panels from airdryed (approximately 2 years) plain and quartersawn sawn 4/4 cherry strips roughly 3-4 inches wide. The finished panels are roughly 9″ wide. After glueup, the panels were thicknessed to approximately 3/8″ thick and rabbetted, then left alone for about a week.
Up to this point everything was fine. I then oiled each panel with Watco prior to assembly into the frame. After oiling the panels sat two days. When I went to install the panels they were cupped along the entire width of the panel. It didn’t seem to make a diference as to whether I had mixed quarter- or painsawn in each panel, or whether the growth rings were aligned in the same direction or not.
Other panels in the shop are fine, so it wan’t a humidity change or other atmospheric activity. Is is possible that Watco, now being a water based product caused the pabes to cup?
Replies
It would be especially important that you finish both the inside and outside of your panels exactly the same. The thinner the material, the more critical this becomes. This means sanding, whiskering the same, and the exact same number of heavy or light coats of finish, both inside and outside. With few exceptions, even finished wood (cells) absorbs and transpires moisture, and an unbalanced finish will upset this stress. Even though it prolongs a project, I usually let in process wood parts acclimate to the shop and their new configuration periodically, but I'm doing this as a hobby, not a vocation. Good luck,
John in middle Tennessee
I then oiled each panel with Watco prior to assembly into the frame.
..Watco, now being a water based product...
?
Hi Art,
I'd agree with Tailorspins: most cupping problems I've had with well-dried wood have had to do with uneven humidity level on one side of a panel. Did you oil one side only? It might not be the actual oil that causes the problem, but the excess humidity that gets in on the un-oiled side. If the boards cup concave on the oiled side (if the edges of the oiled sides are raised), this might be the case...
Plinthe
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