Steven,
Putting aside your Normite tendancies :? I believe a wiring/pipe detector will work for this. You know, like the ones you use to make sure you don't go right through the cold water pipe when you're hanging a mirror over the basin.
I think everyone has been comfronted by timber's ability to shrink, split, warp, cup or twist and wondered why on earth they decided to work with the ruddy stuff
Anyway, the seasoned stuff sounds good, but however old timber is it will still take up moisture until it is balanced with it's surroundings. In other words, if you keep your timber in a cold/damp garage it will naturally take up moisture until the moisture content (MC) is the same as the place it's stored. When you finish the piece and take it in to a centrally heated house it will want to dry out
fast and will split, crack etc etc. A simple solution is to store the wood in an enviroment similar to the one it will be in eventually. For pros this means they have a heated, dehumidified woodstore. For amateurs it generally means stacking it "in stick" (with 3/4-1" pieces of softwood between the boards to allow air flow) behind the back of the sofa or somewhere. You may need to hone your SWMBO sweet-talking skills for this :wink: You need to leave it for a while to acclimatise, but how long depends on where it was stored before. There's a message on #cough#
UK Woodworking#cough# that will help with what you need to remember.
Sorry if this is "teaching you to suck eggs" but maybe it will help avert another disappointment. Also, it's gone miles away from your question
Ah well, never mind. At least it's still about woodworking :wink:
Cheers, Jester
