Large slab work.

[Bill Wyko]

A while back Eric and I went to pick up a DS he had bought. The man was working on a giant slab of walnut putting in some butterfly keys. It was a desk top sent to him from back east. We are here in the desert. A substantial change in humidity and temperature. While he had done an OK job on the butterfly keys, the table had turned into a cork screw. One corner was up about 3+ inches from flat. My question is, what could be done to salvage this? I can't imagine what the customer must have said upon seeing this disaster. This piece was about 12 to 14 feet long and over 4 feet wide with a split down the middle about 5 feet into it.

[Frank Drew]

Bill,

Do you know any more of the story about this slab? Was it newly sawn, then sent across the country to be fashioned into a desk top, or was it already a desk top sent out for repairs? Seems odd.

Anyway, not much the fellow could have done to prevent warping except maybe humidify his shop, if he'd known there would be problems (but how could he?).

[Jim Becker]

There's an excellent article on working with slabs in the new issue of Fine Woodworking that just arrived in the mail a few days ago.

Frank is correct that there are many variables...