Warping wood.

[Calv]

I regularly use pieces of smooth planed softwood from B&Q for some of the things i do, i use the 18x84mm pieces. Some of them however appear a little warped, i mean only very slightly but enough not to be straight. I was'nt sure whether this was occurring at home or before i bought them, today though i got some more and sure enough a small section of the 2.1m lengths were again warped. Is this something that you have to put up with or is there anything at home which could effect this? Can i straighten out warped wood? If a piece of wood is nice and straight, once i've painted and varnished it does that mean it won't warp?

Sorry about all the questions.....must be my warped mind! Groan.

Calv.

 

[Philly]

Darn B+Q pine...... :evil:
Normally a bit too wet, when you dry it out it then warps :roll:
Grown so quickly the stuff is soft, its not my fave timber, although it was all I could get my hands when starting out. Try and find a local timber yard and buy from them-hopefully they will have some hardwoods too!
Cheers
Philly

 

[Calv]

Excellent, thanks for that.

Calv.

 

[Aragorn]

Calv - yeah it's crap quality timber.
You can straighten it out fine with a planer/thicknesser or with handplanes, but it's not going to stay that way for long. It moves and changes over time as the wood responds to the changes in humidity.
I think with new pine, the best to hope for is to get it straight and workable in the workshop and then fix it in place, seal it (paint or varnish) and then don't have too high expectations for it!
The generous use of painter's chaulk cannot be over-estimated :wink:

 

[Jorden]

I use to buy a fair bit of timber from B&Q and experienced the same problem of it warping. One day I'd got a new 10 foot length of 6x2 whitewood out in the sun and I'll swear you could see it moving! In 30 minutes on a sunny day it had twisted 20 degrees along its length :x

I did some asking around and was pointed to a small local timber merchant who supplies redwood for not a lot more than I was paying previously and the difference in amazing, with better stbility and better finish.

I suggest you find a find a good local timber merchant - it's worth it.

Dennis

 

[RogerS]

I've recently got my softwood from the local Travis Perkins and so far, so good. Fingers crossed.

 

[devonwoody]

......pine

I haven't purchased any pine in three years, I get my stock free from skips. Its usully 40 years old plus, looking at the stencilled printing on the 3 and 4 x 2" stuff, I reject anything smaller. :lol: :lol: :lol:

If wanting pine I would only buy secondhand from a demolition dealer if you have too much pride to raid the skips.

 

[tombo]

I am in the middle of a project with some BQ wood, and it is a real pain. I tried to biscuit a panel together and the result was terrible. So i had to rip it apart and start again. I almost gave up, but after spending nearly £50 on it i persevered. The trick in the end seemed to be to cut to smaller pieces and then the twist was not so bad. everything takes twice as long to do. The one thing i would say about B&Q is they are open when i can get there, after work and on a sunday. If only they could sell better material....

Tom

 

[Calv]

Ok so it seems that the general consensus is that B&Q pine is naff. If i was looking at getting a piece of wood for a project, small pieces that can be cut from a length, but something that has a really nice grain in it....whats a nice wood to use? Or does a nice grain not depend on the wood, but what you do with it? I'm after a type of wood that after it's been sanded and varnished, you can still see a lovely grain coming up through it.

Calv.

 

[Midnight]

Calv... have you checked out some Larch..??

 

[Chris Knight]

Calv,

You might like Ash. It's one of the less expensive woods, pretty easy to work and if finished with a transparent finish is a very pleasing pale colour. If stained the grain can become overpowering.

Joinery in ash is nice and crisp. A good wood to learn on - much easier than the softer woods where less than perfect edges will crush rather than cut the fibres.

 

[Calv]

Brilliant, thanks for that, will check them both out. Do i just go to an ordinary timber merchants for something like that?

Calv.

 

[Chris Knight]

You should be able to get ash at pretty near every timber merchant.

 

[Drew]

Have you seen Bent & Quirky's latest ploy with timber is to shrink wrap it in bundles and leave it standing. It looks ok until you cut the plastic then get out the way cause you dont know which way its going to go. I was lucky I was using 1x1 as grounds so it didnt matter about them being bent all I did was put them to the line and screw em home. Must agree with Roger, Travis Perkins are pretty good for timber and they beat everybody hands down with their sheet materials price for building my workshop.

Drew