Need help storing a slab of QSWO

[Joe McMahon]

I just paid the equivalent of my first born son for a piece of 8/4 QSWO that is 10" X 65". I am going to use it for four legs where each will be 1 3/4 X 2 X 60. I will not need the legs for a few months as I don't plan on actually machining them until June.

Here is my question: Would I be better off rough cutting the legs now and letting the four pieces acclimate to my shop or better off leaving the wood in the slab to prevent movement and checking?

[David Keller NC]

That depends - is your workshop humidity controled? If so, I'd rough-cut the legs (and by rough, I mean really rough - with a half-inch to spare, and 6" longer than you need). If not, I'd paint the ends of the board with an oil paint, shellac, or a stray can of spray laquer, and stash it in your shop until you're ready to use it.

[James Hendrix]

I am going to use it for four legs where each will be 1 3/4 X 2 X 60.

I'm curious what you are making the requires legs 5 feet long. Mind sharing what you are going to build?

[Joe McMahon]

I'm curious what you are making the requires legs 5 feet long. Mind sharing what you are going to build?

I am building an arts & crafts curio cabinet. (Actually it is a Gustav Stickley # 803 China Cabinet) This is what it will (hopefully) look like: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3145968

[Larry Fox]

I agree with David (and am curious like James). One thing that occurs to me is that you are cutting thing's really, really close with your goals and the size of the board. If you need it to yield 4 legs 1.75" square and 60 inches long you can't have an end-check more than 5" long and you don't have much room for defects that you would normally cut around.

[Rod Sheridan]

Joe, the wood should be stored in the climate it's going to be used in.

If your shop has household temperatures/humidity you can cut it up and store it in your shop.

If not, cut it up and store it in your house.

You are really tight on dimensions for the piece of stock you purchased, hope it works out.

For larger legs in the Arts and Crafts style I either laminate/veneer the pieces or make "quadralinear " legs using a lock mitre cutter.

Regards, Rod.

[James Hendrix]

I am building an arts & crafts curio cabinet. (Actually it is a Gustav Stickley # 803 China Cabinet) This is what it will (hopefully) look like: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3145968

OK - that makes sense. For some reason, I had table designs stuck in my head and could not get past the visuals with something requiring long legs (one of my fav things on the right female species :D )

[Chris Padilla]

I agree with Larry. ;) That 2" plank will take longer to acclimate than if you rough cut it to the size(s) you need. Only then can you be assured that it was worth a king's ransom and pray it was dried correctly.

[Prashun Patel]

I second the idea to make a wrapped leg with lock miters - or even just butted joints around a poplar center. It's perfect for those big, fat, and straight legs in the A&C style. It's also perfect for QSO, where it's easy to match grain direction across faces.

I like to acclimate stock when it's roughed to near final width - especially on thicker stock; not so much an issue on QSO, but on less stable stock, it can cup and bow somethin' fierce right off the saw.

[David DeCristoforo]

Well, I'm probably going to get smacked in the side of the head here but you don't need to spend extra dough on QS 8/4 for square legs. One way or the other you are going to have flat grain on two faces. So if you had a plain sliced plank and you ripped your legs and rotated the faces 90 degrees, you would have the same thing as you would get ripping the QS 8/4 plank. So maybe you could return the QS plank, get your kid back and just get a nice plain sliced piece of oak or go with the method Rod suggested which will give you QS figure on all four faces.

[Scott T Smith]

Joe, I'm a sawyer and kiln operator and work with a lot of QSO, and I presume that your slab is already KD? Have you checked the MC% with a meter? If you use a pin type meter, take both surface readings as well as readings 3/4" deep. If you use a pinless meter, be sure that it's rated to penetrate at least 1" into the wood, otherwise you may receive inaccurate readings.

8/4 material, especially oak, is more challenging to dry consistently throughout, so it's wise to take some precautions.

If you go ahead and rough saw to your final dimensions, it should allow the leg blanks for complete most of their movement before you do the final machining. So, in answer to your question, yes go ahead and rough them out.

I would suggest that you lightly surface all four sides of your plank before sawing out your rough blanks, so that you end up with four fresh surfaces to acclimate after you resaw. You can also surface after your rough sawing, the key thing is to end up with four fresh sides for acclimation (leaving room for final dimensioning).

If you just saw the existing slab into four blanks, you may encounter problems because two of the blanks will only have one fresh side (the freshly sawn side), and the other two blanks would have two fresh sides. This could affect wood movement during acclimation.

Presuming that the wood was properly dried and IF the interior is below 10% MC, although it won't hurt (and I applaud a conservative approach) you may not need to put any end sealer on the ends of the plank. Checks that appear during the final stages of drying almost always get their start when the wood is above 35% MC; they usually don't appear to the naked eye until the wood is below 25%.

Hope this helps - good luck with your project.

Scott

[Rod Sheridan]

Well, I'm probably going to get smacked in the side of the head here but you don't need to spend extra dough on QS 8/4 for square legs. One way or the other you are going to have flat grain on two faces. So if you had a plain sliced plank and you ripped your legs and rotated the faces 90 degrees, you would have the same thing as you would get ripping the QS 8/4 plank. So maybe you could return the QS plank, get your kid back and just get a nice plain sliced piece of oak or go with the method Rod suggested which will give you QS figure on all four faces.

David, I'm still laughing, great post as always.....Rod.

[Andrew Joiner]

Well, I'm probably going to get smacked in the side of the head here but you don't need to spend extra dough on QS 8/4 for square legs. One way or the other you are going to have flat grain on two faces. So if you had a plain sliced plank and you ripped your legs and rotated the faces 90 degrees, you would have the same thing as you would get ripping the QS 8/4 plank. So maybe you could return the QS plank, get your kid back and just get a nice plain sliced piece of oak or go with the method Rod suggested which will give you QS figure on all four faces.

Yes that's right David and I like your sharp thinking. It's a good thing we're not in a courtroom. You'd be told JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION, please!

If you keep it Joe I'd say it doesn't make a lot of difference,unless the slab is not very dry.

[Joe McMahon]

Scott, thanks for the help. Yes, the wood is kiln dried and I bought it from a very reputable local wood supplier. I don't have a moisture meter so I can't check it.

The slab is 2S so I don't have a lot to work with on the face. I will however take a hand plane and take some thin shavings off the surface to help it acclimate. Just for drill, I will probably want to paint the ends as I want to do anything to preserve the boards.