Warped wood question

[mattyd]

So....

In the last few weeks iv embarked on a small bit of woodwork - iv (almost) build a bookcase, its very simple and will be held together with dowels and glue.

Heres the thing, its built from timber (redwood?) from B&Q, some of the timber is slightly warped, I don't think its too much of a problem as (i hope) once its all clamped and glued together it will sort itself out.

Heres my question though - Is warped timber a fairly typical problems for you guys, or is it just a case of not buying from B&Q and head towards a timber merchant, or is it simply the same wherever I go?

Cheers!

 

[mailee]

Buy your timber from a 'real' timber merchants, it is the B&Q timber that is the problem. Usually it is only good for making propellers. You will find that you can normally sort through the timber and choose the pieces you want. :wink:

 

[motownmartin]

it's commonly know as banana wood in this house

 

[matthewwh]

Hi Matty,

All timber will move but there are different degrees of movement and a lot comes down to how the material has been dried. Timber that has been slowly air dried, kept out of the light with a constant gentle flow of air and then matured in a timber loft has the best chance of being well behaved.

Of those the board containing the pith (the centre of the tree) will be the least likely to cup, the two either side of it the most likely to cup and then gradually reducing as you move out towards the bark.

The main bole of a straight tree grown on flat ground is less prone to twisting than branchwood or timber that has grown out of a bank or at some other funny angle.

There are things you can do to accommodate for or fix the results of movement but selecting good timber in the first place minimises the time you have to spend fiddling about with timber preparation. I would suggest a proper timber merchant would be a much better place to start than B&Q.

The first chapter of Joyce is a good introduction to understanding timber as a material, but nothing beats getting hold of a good straight trunk - it doesn't have to be big - cleaving or sawing it (or having it done by a mill if it's too big) and drying it yourself.

 

[tekno.mage]

Oh dear - I remember trying to buy timber from B&Q and the like about 20 years ago. I spending ages sorting through every length in the rack to find 4 lengths that were not split. full of knots or twisted like barley-twist toffee!!

My partner & I built a tall bookcase to fit an awkward space in an Edwardian terraced house, but gave up with B&Q and found a real timber merchant for that wood. The timber was better quality, straighter, unsplit and cheaper than at B&Q

Having said that, you do need to store any timber you bring home properly to keep it un-warped. Leaving it propped up against a south-facing wall on a nice hot sunny day won't do it any good at all. You'd be surprised at how quickly a plank can warp in those conditions - under a day (as a friend of mine discovered to his horror!)

tekno.mage

 

[disco_monkey79]

I have also bought some of that redwood from B&Q, when I made a small chest to keep random stuff in. I found it was quite possible to clamp it back to square, and 6 months later the thing hasn't sprung apart yet.

Good luck with your project.

 

[mattyd]

Thanks all for the great advice... I guess this time Ill put it down to a not very expensive mistake that I wont make again.

 

[Lee J]

I bought some B&Q redwood yesterday for a chest of drawers project for our spare room.

I'll be doing a WIP soon so we'll see how it performs.

I spent ages sorting through the pieces until I found 5 pieces fairly straight and untwisted. I got 2.4m lengths of 44mm x 28mm