Lessons learned.....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Last year we had a kitchen bump out done with a complete remodel, new appliances and all the windows in our house replaced. I took on the finish carpentry portion after the contractor and subcontractors were finished. Due to some travel this fall and guests over the holidays, I am down to one 8' by 4' window in our living room that needs interior trim.

Friday afternoon, after edge jointing I ripped one 10' by 10" of 4/4 red oak to 2 3/4" strips for the casing. I would have face jointed it first but my jointer is only 8" wide. Each time I noticed that as I got near the end of the 10' piece while ripping, the other end was closing back together after leaving the splitter on my tablesaw. So, after ripping each piece, I ran the freshly sawn edge over the jointer before ripping the next piece trying to insure I had a straight edge for a reference against the fence.

It was late, my wife is out of town and I was going out for supper so I left the pieces sitting over night on my outfeed table.

Yesterday morning I walked into the shop to find that all 3 pieces that I had ripped were horribly warped. Warped so badly, that I didn't have enough extra width to try to edge joint and recut to width.

I have noticed that Tommy Mac often rough cuts things to size and leaves the parts stickered over night before finish cutting things. This is the first time I have had this kind of an issue.

I buy my hardwood at a supplier in Moscow, ID some 30 miles north of here and 2,000' higher in elevation. They receive a little more moisture than us so most often I will bring stuff into the shop and let it acclimate for a couple weeks before I try milling it. This oak had been in my shop since late August so acclimation shouldn't have been an issue.

Hardwoods are relatively expensive locally as there isn't much of it nearby. This was an expensive lesson to learn.

I see a trip to Moscow tomorrow.

[Steve Peterson]

It may not have been an acclimation problem, but rather how the wood dried. The outer surfaces dray first, but can't shrink because of the larger wet core. Then the inside dries out and may be constrained by the now larger outer shell. Kilns have very specific temperature "recipes" to try to minimize the stresses between the inner and outer surfaces.

I have had pieces of 1x6 borg pine that turned into complete bananas when ripping them. Obviously they were dried as soon as possible with no regard to quality.

Tommy usually leaves the pieces a bit oversized and does the final milling to thickness/length the next day. Seems like a good idea. It can't compensate for pieces with hidden stresses.

Steve

[Don Jarvie]

It's happened to all of us at some point! I sometimes go step further, face joint and let it sit overnight. Face joint again then plane leaving it oversized enough so I can face joint and plane again. Once you start jointing and planing the tension in the wood releases so it may warp or twist.

Ive also learned to mill extra wood in case a piece twists so bad it can't be used. Extra wood also helps when you need another piece and will never get it the same exact thickness as the rest. I plane everything I need at once so it's the same thickness unless it's a big piece and will do it in parts.

[Art Mann]

I learned a lesson in warpage just the other day. I make and sell carved coasters. I had prepared a couple dozen walnut blanks that are 3-3/4" square by 5/16" thick and left them scattered on my work bench. A few days later, I noticed that the sun was shining through a window and directly onto the bench with the blanks. The ones that were in the sun had warped badly whereas the ones that were away from the window were still quite flat. That was a big loss because these particular blanks were made from highly figured material that brings a premium price. Not knowing what else to do, I stacked the bowed ones up together with concave face to concave face and clamped them up with a big old hand clamp. Eventually, the moisture on both sides equalized and they flattened back out. I count myself lucky that they were recoverable.

[Larry Frank]

It happens and better before you installed it. When doing something like that, I get quartersawn wood.. I will cut it Dow and let it sit for awhile.

Luckily, in my part of the country hardwood is easy to get.

[Jim Becker]

It may not have been an acclimation problem, but rather how the wood dried.
I agree, that kind of movement, in my experience, is more from stress relief rather than moisture issues.

It is, however, a good practice to rough cut to size and let things settle before final milling unless you absolutely know things are dry and stable.