Solid Wood doors?

[AndyBoyd]

My next project is looming ( a tall cupboard in the kitchen to cover a door that is blocked on the other side by the new piano)

My wife and I were very much impressed y the work of Duncan Gowdy and we'd like to build a cupboard in that style:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=31597
http://duncangowdy.com/artwork/312047.html

So I will make a tall cupboard (2100mm high by 780mm wide) with 3 drawers at the bottom and a long pair of cupboard doors at the top (1600mm high by ~390mm wide)

On this I will mimic the carving of the tree outlines covering both drawers and cupboard doors. (using a PC projector to let me trace the image from photos of trees in winter)

As this is to be carved I need to use solid wood and hence why I'm posting here - as cutting through veneer into plywood is not the visual effect we want

Duncan Gowdy places on his smaller doors a pair of battens across the back (which I presume is to minimise movement)

My question is I'd prefer to make these doors from a single piece of wood (25mm thick) bookmatched - will this due to the size of the doors give me horrendous wood moving problems? (luckily my local wood merchant can cut dry and plane wood for you to these sizes at a very small charge- as my machines will not handle such sizes)

I will put 3 battens horizontally across the back of each door and use 3 euro style cup hinges on each door (even might put knife hinges in but if the door moves they give me no adjustment).
I will use Blum Tandem (equiv) hidden slides on hand cut dovetailed drawers as these will be high use kitchen drawers

The choice of wood is probably be dutch sycamore (esdoorn) or Ash (as Gowdy does) the cabinet frame will be the same wood as the doors.

Anything else I can do to minimise wood movement?

Any guidance on this would be as ever much appreciated

and finally a happy new year everyone

 

[bjm]

Hi Andy

Good luck with your project. I just had a look at Gowdy's website and he has some impressive pieces there.

I suspect the battens he uses are intended to keep the panels flat and stop them from bowing. It is better to accommodate any potential for wood movement rather than trying to minimise it. It looks like he has done this in the second link - look at the gap between the doors - and the battens are more than likely slotted to allow for the wood to move. Trying to restrain any wood from moving is not to be advised.

For dry conditions sycamore and ash can be expected to move about 1% across the grain for every 4% change in moisture content, as a general approximation, if that helps.

Brian

 

[Mattty]

The most obvious thing i can think of would be to use quarter sawn timber for the doors this will minimse movement.

The battens as said above should still allow for movement.

Depending on the detail you want to achieve in your carving, Sycamore is finer grained and should give a crisper finish than the open grained Ash.

Personally i would go for the Knife hinges. Nice project idea, good luck and post some pictures!

HTH

 

[jasonB]

I'd prefer to make these doors from a single piece of wood (25mm thick) bookmatched

Is that deepsawn from a 25mm board or cut from 50mm to give two boards that will be approx 18mm finish?

Either way I would get them deepsawn and then bring them into your kitchen to settle for a few months before taking them back to be thicknessed. The sawing action will release a lot tension and the outsides may well have a different MC to the inside.

Also if cut from a 25mm board your doors will be too thin for consealed hinges.

Jason

 

[AndyBoyd]

Thanks everyone one good points , I'll note them -

Jason
the idea was to deep sawn from a 60mm thick plank (they have the deepest band sawn I've ever seen there with 75mm blades!)

The after acclimatising them I'll take them back to be thicknessed (I only have a 150mm planer and 300mm thicknesser)

keep you all posted