working with hardwood

[tom owens]

hi all. im hoping for a bit of advice if anyone could help me... iv made some kitchen doors out off u.s oak,european oak,walnut and maple. i made one of each in various sizes with rail and stile joints and a solid floating panel to suit. iv got the panel to fit snug in the hight but slightly loose in the width for expantion... all the timber is kiln dried but after reading a thread just now about moister content in hardwood i think iv made a big mistake... as soon as i got back from the timber yard i started machining the timber to finished size. then i cut all the timber to rough lengths and run it through the spindle to cut the joints. so to cut a already long story short i had all 4 frames put together dry and the panels gluing overnight in a cold workshop. all the panels dried fine so after a sanding down and a run through the spindle to put the profile on the raised panel and another sanding i assembled,squared and glued my doors up. are these doors eventually going to warp and twist in room temp now iv made them without letting any moister in the timber dry out? could someone please explain the whole drying out of timber so when i make something and bring it in the house its got less of a chance of twisting... if i make a cupboard in my shop with a small heater in it set at room temp to leave timber to dry out would this work as long as the heat dosent escape?

 

[Chems]

First off, its really hard to read a big block of text like that, can we have some paragraphs?


I'm just going to nip in before everyone else. I've been using hardwoods for 2 years and I buy it kiln dried that is left at the timber yard air drying. I never do the aclimatize thing as it takes so long to make things once I'd taken it inside and out it would be the same in the end.

I think you'll be ok if the timber has been properly kiln dried and stored at the yard. One of the best things you can do is get a finish on it as soon as possible as this will seal it from some of the moisture in the air.

I can also tell you what the masses will say tomorrow when they logon. Some will say that kiln dried is awful and air dried is much better and your doors are going to warp up like those fish you get out of crackers and put on your hand.

Others will say you should have taken it inside to where its going to be when its finished and then machined it and left it for about 2 weeks before machining to final dimensions.

I hope this is helpful and really hope your doors stay flat, my advice is keep going and see what happens!

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi Tom,

First off, welcome to the Forum.

I reckon Chems has covered your query more or less. I do acclimatise timber, but I prefer air dried. Whichever I use though, I always let it rest a while before it's worked.

I can only add, that once you find a decent supplier who is reasonable in price, then obviously you stick with that firm.

Have a read of this if you want to go into moisture content of timber.

http://www.woodforgood.com/building-sus ... -finishes/

Hope you enjoy your woodworking.

John

 

[tom owens]

thanks very much for the replies . touch wood :lol: they have been inside for a week now and not moved at all.....

iv been getting my timber from arnold lavers in hull. i bought the timber in 1" x 6" and 1" x 8" boards..

walnut £2.10 per running foot
maple £1.50 per runnung foot
european oak £1.80 per running foot
u.s oak £1.00 per running foot

all these were plus a third for 8" boards... this was the cheapest i found of all the timber yards in hull that stock hardwoods..

 

[mailee]

Well Tom, you picked the right place for your hardwood, it is good quality from there as I use them myself. I used some of their AWO on a bedroom suite I built and it has stayed flat, well the doors have as the sides were MDF. I also didn't acclimatise the wood and have had no problems. HTH. :wink:

 

[devonwoody]

I find that machining timber these days seems to cause distortion problems, and I avoid this mostly by taking only small cuts on the planer/thicknesser. Also work both sides of timber.

 

[tom owens]

I find that machining timber these days seems to cause distortion problems, and I avoid this mostly by taking only small cuts on the planer/thicknesser. Also work both sides of timber.

whilst i was machining the maple up i found that it started to warp across the grain forming a very slight C shape across 8" boards...

is this down to me taking to much off in one pass. i was taking 2mm off each pass through. each piece went through 3 times to get the finished size.

 

[OPJ]

It's not the amount of material you're removing in one pass that you should be too concerned with, but it is important to try and remove an equal amount of material from each side, to even out the stresses within the wood as they are released.

Heavy cuts are fine initially but, as you get close to your finished dimensions, you'll want to start taking shallow cuts (perhaps finishing on as little as 0.5mm), for the best possible finish from the machine and minimal tearout.

It's an awkward time of the year to be machining wood unless you're fortunate to have a well-insulated 'shop with twenty-four-hour heating... Wood will always want to move, even when it's been seasoned. It will continue to do this in its new environment, after the piece of furniture is finished and in its new home. The wider the boards are, the greater the chance they will cup. If it's only minimal, you can leave with it. Leave it alone (indoors) for a few days and it may revert back to flat (but, it'll probably try and move again before you've finished working with it).

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks OPJ for the tip about timber this time of the year.

Its reminds me to go out to the shed and select some timber to put under the bed again for work in April.

 

[LocalOak]

Oops, replied to the wrong thread.