Bowed Oak - can it be used?

[Charlie Woody]

I bought 3 lengths of English Oak in September, supposedly kiln dried, 20mm thick 195mm wide and as you will see from the photo of two of the boards they have bowed considerably. They have been stored in my workshop, stickered since purchase. The workshop humidity stays around 45 - 50 per cent and temperature kept above freezing.

The intended use of these boards was to box in around some central heating pipes and I need to get approx 180mm, 130mm, 70mm & 50mm out of the three boards.

Is there any way I can re saw these, plane flat then re join to make up the required widths ...... or are these boards just firewood?

 

[Chems]

Sure, cut them down the middle, plane thickness as usual and when gluing back up be sure to flip the grain orientation.

 

[Greedo]

Sure, cut them down the middle, plane thickness as usual and when gluing back up be sure to flip the grain orientation.

This. ^^^^

If you're going to use them for firewood send them up to Glasgow. I'll take them off you no problem

 

[Chrispy]

Just wait untill it feels the heat of that central heating pipe, then it will warp!............... far more than that.

 

[Racers]

Yep, Get them indoors next to the pipes and see what happens.
Then take it from there, you will might need to rip them down and joint them depending on how they dry out.

Pete

 

[Jelly]

That's cupped, not bowed! (Bowing is with the grain direction)

Which is lucky, because your initial plan of resawing, jointing and gluing will work well; so you only lose a little over the saw kerf, not the whole thing.

If they've already distorted, I'd get them acclimatised wherever they're going to be used (or somewhere comparable) then correct for distortion once you're sure that they're stable.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

... and as you will see from the photo of two of the boards they have bowed considerably.

I see no bowing in your image, but there is strong evidence of cupping.

Bowing is a deviation from straight following the length of the wood, and cupping is a deviation from straight across the wood's width.

Rip the wood into narrower widths, flatten it and rejoin to make up the width required for your job. Slainte.

 

[Chems]

Nothing worse than not reading other peoples replies Richard, no body wants to have a repeatathon when reading through a thread.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Nothing worse than not reading other peoples replies Richard, no body wants to have a repeatathon when reading through a thread.

Jelly's reply wasn't posted when I started my post Chems. I received a phone call just after I'd started replying which occupied my time for about half an hour. After I'd dealt with the call I simply picked up where I left off, completed the two or three minutes of typing to finish my message, posted it and moved on without looking back. If you look at the timing of the two posts I think you might concede that but for the phone call it's likely I would have posted twenty minutes or so earlier than Jelly. Slainte.

 

[Chems]

I'll give you a pass this time, your ok in my book!

 

[Benchwayze]

Main thing is, Charlie has gotten the message ... I imagine! :lol:

Charlie,

Kiln dried timber is fine, as long as you store it somewhere that has a similar humidity to the conditions in which it was stored at the timber yard.
Storing it in 'damper' or ''drier' conditions gives the wood the opportunity to change it's moisture content, which seems to have happened to your material.

I can only repeat the advice to store kiln-dried timber where it is to be used, if possible. I don't think anyone mentioned giving the timber the chance to come to equilibrium between each 'milling' stage. I think you should have all the bases covered now.
So Best of luck.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Charlie: other people have touched on this -- it's probably not a good idea to use these for boxing in heating pipes. Far better to obtain some oak-veneered ply (if you want to show off, you could cut a square section from one of the original boards and rebate it to take the ply on the corner. That shouldn't move anything like as much (but may still move a bit, especially if it's in a moist place such a a cloakroom, kitchen or bathroom. I'd even seal the ply with some sort of matt waterproof finish too. to be safe.

That then leaves you with two nice bits of oak for furniture

E.

 

[Charlie Woody]

Main thing is, Charlie has gotten the message ... I imagine! :lol:

Charlie,

Kiln dried timber is fine, as long as you store it somewhere that has a similar humidity to the conditions in which it was stored at the timber yard.
Storing it in 'damper' or ''drier' conditions gives the wood the opportunity to change it's moisture content, which seems to have happened to your material.

I can only repeat the advice to store kiln-dried timber where it is to be used, if possible. I don't think anyone mentioned giving the timber the chance to come to equilibrium between each 'milling' stage. I think you should have all the bases covered now.
So Best of luck.

John,

Thank you and all the other contributors.

I don't think this timber was properly kilned as the guy I got it from has just started using a self built kiln. Parts of the boards felt damp to the touch when I received them and feel much drier now and also lighter now. So even without a moisture meter I am pretty sure they have dried out in my workshop. So the change in humidity and temperature has caused the cupping (I did know that I just had a "senior moment" when typing my post, honestly!!!)

For future reference if you are making items for your own home (as I am in this case) then it might be possible to store the timber in the room where it will be used, however, how do the professionals overcome this as they can't store the timber in the customers home?

So if I want to use this timber I should 1. rip it to narrow strips first marking to identify which lengths came from which part of each board, 2. leave in the sitting room for a couple of weeks 3. plane flat, 4. return to the sitting room for another week or so, 5 then joint and fit?

Having bought this timber I don't want to have to buy veneered ply, even though it would be a better choice of material, due to the cost factor.

My original intention was to finish this oak with 2 coats of Osmo door oil on all 4 sides / edges to match the oak doors in the room. Do you think this will give enough protection against future humidity changes?

 

[Eric The Viking]

Do you think this will give enough protection against future humidity changes?

Nope, not in that application. It'll face big changes in both temperature and humidity. You'll waste the oak and get an unsatisfactory result.

"If I was wantin' to get to Dublin, I'd not be startin' from here."

Just my twopence though.

E.

 

[Benchwayze]

Charlie,

If you can get distaff permission to store the timber in the room, do so. Put it in stick if possible, and disguise it with an old sheet.
It's entirely possible it might flatten out a little. The stripping down and rejoining usually works, but it's not a 'given'.

Once the timber has gained equilibrium, I should think it will be okay when the job's done. As long as you get a shift on making the door, it shouldn't change all that much being moved to and from the workshop. You might expect seasonal changes, but most probably the door will need only minor adjustments, until it finally settles down. Whatever the finish, if a door is going to warp, it will. You just have to take all sensible precautions, but I've found things are rarely as bad as imagined.

As for finishes, I never had a problem with warping that I could blame on the finish. As said, a door that is going to warp, will do so.

HTH

 

[Chems]

Charlie can't you resaw it and stick it to some MDF/Ply substrate and make your own veneered board?

 

[Eric The Viking]

John,

I think he's cladding pipework, not making doors.

Charlie, if I misunderstood, my comments about it not working don't apply (nor if it's only cold water piping - hadn't thought about that!).

E.

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks Eric. I've been a bit slow lately...

 

[beech1948]

All,

perhaps I'm taking this in the wrong direction and I am certainly no expert BUT

In the original post the piece on the RHS looks to have been cut from a small diameter tree and includes the pith/heart of the tree. The LHS looks similar but I can see less of it.

Doesn't the inclusion of the pith mean that there would be a cupping/twisting reaction almost immediately. Can pith be worked OK.

Al