Oak Boards Movement During And After Planing

[kmp]

Morning all, I am looking for some advice on the usability of recently obtained sawn oak boards, supposedly kiln dried. I have a couple of bookcases to build and have hit a problem with the second one. The boards were obtained (bargain price he said) six weeks ago and stacked with sticks for three weeks. I then cleaned them up to produce some PAR that was a little oversize and stacked then again as they had bowed slightly a short time after planning. They looked to have straightened a little so I planed them again to finished size (20mm x 200mm x 1.2m) taking a similar amount off of each face. Within an hour of coming from the thicknesser 6 had bowed considerably, one even looking like a rough sea along it's length. Moved them into the house and after three days one or two have returned to usable but the others haven't moved at all.

My thoughts are that they are not suitable for use and I should shop elsewhere for properly dried boards, would that be a fair assumption? Please could someone advise if my process was incorrect and I have caused the problem myself or if I have just been unlucky in the purchase? This is not the first time I have used sawn Oak boards and have experienced slight movement after machining but this is by far the worst I have experienced. These boards cost me nearly £40 a cu ft, should I expect better or is this the normal cost of average timber.

Your advice would be very much appreciated

Keith

 

[custard]

That's a pain.

One possible explanation is this, I'm hearing a lot of complaints at the moment from full time furniture makers about the quality of Oak that's currently on sale. Makers always moan about timber quality but this is both consistent and specific. They say much of the kilned Oak and Chestnut on sale suffers from checking, yellow stain patches, and honeycombing, all symptoms of when a mill has rushed the timber through the drying/kilning process. You end up with something that's similar to "reaction timber" in that it's difficult to get the stability you need for furniture. What makes this really problematic is that plenty of joiners are accepting this quality and cracking on doing the best they can, if mills get away with it then super fast processing will become the norm.

I can't recommend a yard in your area, but around here makers are either moving to air dried or only buying Oak and Chestnut from the yards that do their own kilning, like Tylers or English Woodlands, as these yards seem to do a better job and will stand behind their quality.

£40 a cube is around the mid price for kilned Oak, but Oak is one of the few hardwoods that's regularly graded, personally I prefer to pay more for higher grades (see English Woodlands web site for more info on grading).

Good luck

 

[tomatwark]

The other problem is that there are a lot of tree surgeons, who have gone and bought a small kiln to dry wood, with the experience to be able to do it well.

 

[Sawdust=manglitter]

Hi Kieth, where abouts in South Wales are you?

I often use somewhere called Timberman near Carmarthen. They may not be the cheapest around, but they stock and supply good quality timbers there (oak included). As Custard has said in previous posts, it's worth building a good relationship with them and get to know them and tell them what you plan to do with the wood etc, they know their stuff and will keep an eye out for you for future projects etc

 

[AndyT]

Have a look at this article by Richard Jones of this forum. I think it is a good summary of drying defects. It also shows how you can do a diagnostic "fork test" to see what is wrong with the timber you have.

http://www.richardjonesfurniture.com/Ar ... fault.html

(Richard - I hope you don't mind me posting this for you!)

 

[andersonec]

A lot of the Kiln dried Oak (and other timbers) are stored in warehouses which have major gaps around their doors, which are unavoidable, as this is to allow loading and unloading, after a few weeks the moisture which gets in to the warehouse, especially in the late summer / autumn, has permeated into the timber and undone all the effort of kiln drying. You will need a bit more than a few weeks indoors to dry your timber, more like a couple or three months.

Andy

 

[kmp]

Thanks to everyone for some excellent information and advice it helps a great deal as I will sort out some more boards and sticker these away for a month or two (or more) and see what I can eventually rescue for use.

Custard, your description fits my wood perfectly so I guess I'm not the only one suffering. I usually go for air dried if I have a couple of months to let them acclimatise, but I promised my daughter and like most Dads find it difficult to "disappoint". So I specifically went for kiln dried to allow me to get to work ASAP. Lesson learnt I think. If I can't find any decent timber locally then I will visit my lad in Exeter and call in to Yandles on the way, wood from them has always been fine for me it's just that they are a bit far away The more local yard (Wentwood Timber) that I also use with success normally, had very little in Oak when I bought this batch, so I will check with them before I travel too far. Thanks again for your rapid and very helpful response.

Sawdust, thanks for that I have been there but didn't know they did timber as well as tools, I'll try them as well this time. I live a couple of miles outside Bridgend so not too far.

Andy T, great link thank you, useful and understandable even for a "reformed" metal basher like myself.

Andersonec, thanks for your help, I fully agree that longer was required but common sense goes out the door when the daughter asks!!

So thanks everyone, at least I have an idea of what went wrong and it might not have been all my fault, at least that is what I will tell the wife when she sees the bill for "not more wood". Problem has been put on hold anyway as I took up diving out of the shower and a torn knee ligament has slowed me down somewhat so a restful Christmas it will be.

Best regards

Keith