Shrinkage of very curly western broad leaf maple?

[Ron Humphrey]

I have obtained some 3/16” - 1/4” thick pieces of well air-dried, very curly, broad leaf maple that were originally cut for guitar makers.

I would like to just glue roughly 6” x 10” pieces of this material onto the 3/8 thick walnut sides of a small box for the top. For larger and thicker lids, I always allow the lid to float in a 360° dado. I’m hoping the gnarly, irregular grain will prevent splitting as there is no grain line.

Am I safe from the splitting issue and OK to proceed?

[Jim Neeley]

Ron,

The grain may be gnarly and irregular but it will still have grain. When you glue them up I recommend orienting them both so the grain runs in the same direction. This size may be small enough to ?not make it visible? but orienting them at 90* is asking for problems.

Jim

[Ron Humphrey]

Jim,

Thanks for your reply. I may not have been clear on the application. Your advice appears to be for veneering the maple to the sides.

What I want to do is use the maple as the top of the lid by simply gluing it to the tops of the walnut sides.

The crux is understanding the extent to which the thin curly maple will or will not crack over time.