My first wood project box is showing gaps between the joins

[wwade]

I made a large storage box for the kitchen over a year ago. It was my first wood project. Yesterday I noticed gaps between the joins. I also created the inlay panels by using strips of wood at the time to try and create the effect of one large board, but I also noticed gaps appearing here too. I can only guess the wood has expanded and contracted over the months as sitting in the kithchen there are varying temperatures.

I made the box using Softwood pine, like I do all my other projects. To join the four sides I also used dowels at the time, don't think I should have done that either as screws might have stopped the wood moving. It's a little dissapointing but it's a learning curve. All is not lost I can always refurb later on.

Just need your professional tips on how you deal with this for future projects.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Whats happened is the wood has shrunk across the grain of each board so in essence the widths of each board has reduced....hence gaps appearing. It is of course home central heating that's the culprit, it's further dried the wood since it's installation down to an equilibrium moisture content (or it may still have more to go).

A very common mistake is that folks don't acclimatise newly bought timber to the room it will end up in, especially poorly stored or poorly kiln dried stock (which is too wet when bought). The moisture content of the wood and the environment are out of balance and with the help of all that dry heat, come into balance over the months after installation, so shrinkage occurs and resultant cracks, shakes, splits and gaps as well as warping, cupping etc.

One solution is to let it acclimatise for several weeks in the room it will end up in. More commonly though the tried and tested solution is to use tongue and groove boards and leave an invisible gap inside the groove so the tongue has room to move with the wood. If it shrinks, more tongue ends up showing but no gaps are visible.

A wise investment is a moisture meter that allows you to test the moisture content of woods prior to use. 8% MC is generally considered to be about right for indoor furniture.

 

[MattRoberts]

Screws won't stop the wood moving - they will just become loose after lots of expansion and contraction has occurred.

Stopping gaps appearing is impacted by grain orientation as well as the joinery. Can you show some photos of the piece?

 

[wwade]

Screws won't stop the wood moving - they will just become loose after lots of expansion and contraction has occurred.

Stopping gaps appearing is impacted by grain orientation as well as the joinery. Can you show some photos of the piece?

Will get my phone sorted and send you a couple.

 

[Ttrees]

Agree with above ..
A lot of folks starting try to make interesting timber orientation patterns .
As opposed to most well planned furniture that is designed not to restrict wood swelling and contraction .
Need piccys

 

[wwade]

Agree with above ..
A lot of folks starting try to make interesting timber orientation patterns .
As opposed to most well planned furniture that is designed not to restrict wood swelling and contraction .
Need piccys

Uploaded 4 pictures of the storage box

 

[thetyreman]

when you made it, did you plane the surfaces to be glued together by hand? I have noticed this can improve how well the glue sticks, also did you use lots of clamps?

 

[Ttrees]

Did you say that all those boards which make up your panel are fixed ?
Those boards should be allowed to move in a dado .(trench, rebate)
For the desired outcome you want ,this dado should completely surround the timber so the panels are floating.
You would not see the gaps from seasonal movement with the gap covered by each side
Wood does not move much along its length, but across its width it does substantially ...
They can be snug enough so they aren't loose and you wont see any gap through them .
Your choice how you go about this , tablesaw or plane or router .
Good luck

 

[Sheffield Tony]

A lot of folks starting try to make interesting timber orientation patterns .
As opposed to most well planned furniture that is designed not to restrict wood swelling and contraction .

+1. Glueing or screwing things things more tightly, and acclimatising wood will not get you out of trouble. The wood panels will move; at their widest they have forced the frame joints apart, now having shrunk there are gaps. Making the strips of the panels tongue and grooved together with a bit of room for expansion/contraction, or using a few smaller framed panels instead of one big one, with the panel sitting in grooves allowing a little room for movement, not glued solid, are the sort of things that will avoid this.

Ttrees is so right. "A lot of folks starting try to make interesting timber orientation patterns" - I suspect most of us have built stuff, watched it fall apart, then found out why traditional furniture was built the way it is ! I first learned about breadboard ends after the top of a cabinet I made pushed itself apart But making stable furniture out of a material that is perpetually on the move is what woodwork is all about.

 

[wwade]

when you made it, did you plane the surfaces to be glued together by hand? I have noticed this can improve how well the glue sticks, also did you use lots of clamps?

No it didn't plane the surfaces, the wood was square, as good as. I bought the wood at stock sizes as I didn't / dont have a table saw for cutting long lengths. I did however sand them when cut. Because it was my first proper project I created a lip inside the box, the strips where glued and the layed on the lip and clamped. I have since invested in a router and a router table. Hope that makes sense.

 

[wwade]

Did you say that all those boards which make up your panel are fixed ?
Those boards should be allowed to move in a dado .(trench, rebate)
For the desired outcome you want ,this dado should completely surround the timber so the panels are floating.
You would not see the gaps from seasonal movement with the gap covered by each side
Wood does not move much along its length, but across its width it does substantially ...
They can be snug enough so they aren't loose and you wont see any gap through them .
Your choice how you go about this , tablesaw or plane or router .
Good luck

Yes the boards / strips are fixed. In reply to the previous post I have since invested in a router and router table and will know if I ever do a project like this again.

 

[ED65]

To join the four sides I also used dowels at the time, don't think I should have done that either...

Don't discount dowelled joints for the future. If done right they are a very good option. A dowel-reinforced corner joint such as you used to make your end frames can be as strong if not stronger than the same joint done with a Domino joiner which are widely used by pros these days. One of the only reasons that dowels have fallen out of favour is simply that it makes every joint slower to do and time is money.

You appear to have had glue-line failures throughout so some general tips for achieving strong glue joints:
don't be stingy with the glue;
tighten your clamps up very well (you should need to use clamp pads to prevent dents if working in pine);
make sure all surfaces to be glued aren't 'old', if not worked within the last hour lightly sand with fine paper.

But actually your weaker joints did you a favour! If your glue joints had been as strong as they could have been they wouldn't have been able to come apart in most places to release built-up tension. With strong joints throughout a few boards might have split instead.

One last thing, on the design of the piece. Boards expand and contract across their width not their length, so the wider you make a panel the greater the movement that needs to be allowed for. In a box like this of more traditional construction the panels might have used tongue-and-groove material, allowing each board to move independently to some degree and not all together.

In your large glued panels the potential for seasonal movement is very large (especially because it's flat-sawn pine). This amount of movement doesn't have to be a problem as long as the panels are free to move as needed, i.e. not all glued or screwed to the frames, and there's space for them at each end when they're at maximum width.

 

[wwade]

To join the four sides I also used dowels at the time, don't think I should have done that either...

Don't discount dowelled joints for the future. If done right they are a very good option. A dowel-reinforced corner joint such as you used to make your end frames can be as strong if not stronger than the same joint done with a Domino joiner which are widely used by pros these days. One of the only reasons that dowels have fallen out of favour is simply that it makes every joint slower to do and time is money.

You appear to have had glue-line failures throughout so some general tips for achieving strong glue joints:
don't be stingy with the glue;
tighten your clamps up very well (you should need to use clamp pads to prevent dents if working in pine);
make sure all surfaces to be glued aren't 'old', if not worked within the last hour lightly sand with fine paper.

But actually your weaker joints did you a favour! If your glue joints had been as strong as they could have been they wouldn't have been able to come apart in most places to release built-up tension. With strong joints throughout a few boards might have split instead.

One last thing, on the design of the piece. Boards expand and contract across their width not their length, so the wider you make a panel the greater the movement that needs to be allowed for. In a box like this of more traditional construction the panels might have used tongue-and-groove material, allowing each board to move independently to some degree and not all together.

In your large glued panels the potential for seasonal movement is very large (especially because it's flat-sawn pine). This amount of movement doesn't have to be a problem as long as the panels are free to move as needed, i.e. not all glued or screwed to the frames, and there's space for them at each end when they're at maximum width.

Thank you for the tips, some very useful information there. When I built the box the last thing on my mind was the wood actually moving when finished. As others have said and now yourself, I will make sure any future panels are not screwed or glued and are free to move within some sort of groove.