Does this happen every time you resaw rough timber?

[Michael Adelong]

Hello guys. I got my new bandsaw up and running (Rikon 18"), so I bought some decent wood to play with. Of course, that meant I needed something to build as well. I decided to give the coffee table that FWW had in the issue with the wipe on finish test a try. I picked up 2 8/4 plain sawn white oak timbers, one 4' and one 8' (I still don't think I bought enough).

At any rate, the plans call for mostly 1" thick stock. The rough timber I have was 2 1/8" thick when I started. After face jointing one side flat, I had just slightly over 2" left. After ripping a 2.5" piece off to make the long aprons, I proceded to resaw it into 2 boards. The resaw goes fine (yeah! 1st try with nice wood - and the wood lived!!! :D ).

Problem #1 - I now have the beginnings of 2 really great bows. My perfectly flat 2" thick board is now 2 boards that resemble the leaf springs off of somebody's Chevy. Problem # 2 is that I didn't notice problem #1 until after I ran them through the planer and set them on the tablesaw. Problem #3 - my stock is now 15/16" thick. Note to self - buy at least 10/4 (or 6/4 and waste a lot) timber when the plans call for 1" thick parts. Which way do you guys usually go?

So being the stubborn guy that I am, I resaw the other 5" wide piece of that same 4' timber. Guess what? Same exact bow. Haha... I love it when I pick a nice, relaxing, problem free, stress free hobby.

Ok.. so... Can I clamp these boards to something for a few days to help flatten them? I could adjust the plans and try to joint & plane the boards down to 7/8" without cutting them in half, but it's gonna be close. Should I just make a bunch of 24" long 7/8" thick stock for some future project and start over?

Am I gonna run into this ever time I resaw?

Thanks,
Michael

[Kelly Anderson]

I got some 8/4 air dried (for something like 20 years according to guy I bought it from) rough sawn Walnut. It had been sitting outside stickered and covered on top all that time so some of the edges were a little rough. On one piece, to see what it looked like underneath, I cleaned up both sides, cut some off the ends and ripped off at least one side. After that it sat on my covered porch for probally 9 or 10 months so I figured 20 year air dried with freshly exposed surfaces and no resulting warps would be ok. I decided to use it for drawer sides and resawed it. One side was great, the other bowed like crazy. I was able to save it because it was long so I could cut it into shorter pieces for the drawers but I sure did not expect that to happen.

[Ian Abraham]

Am I gonna run into this ever time I resaw?


Hopefully not, but it does happen.

Normally for one of 2 reasons.

Either the wood is not completely dry, the inside is at a higher moisture content than the outside. That you can control by making sure the wood is completely dry, and it may even correct itself once the resawn pieces dry out properly.

Other cause is internal stress in the wood from when it was growing. Maybe the tree grew on a lean, or the board came from near a large knot or crotch, or maybe for no obvious reason. Not much you can do about that :(

It's just one of the reasons they advise you to buy 20% more wood than you actually need.


Should I just make a bunch of 24" long 7/8" thick stock for some future project and start over?


Probably the best plan :) Although I wouldn't cut it and joint it untill you know what you are using it for. You will be annoyed if you need 23" and 25" pieces when you have trimmed it to 24" :o

Cheers

Ian

[Mike Cutler]

If I had to guess.I would say that you relieved stress. If your wood was primarily flatsawn the growth rigs may have been running to close to parallel to the face. I've had this problem once or twice.:rolleyes:, maybe;)
Just a suggestion.

[Steve Stube]

Should I just make a bunch of 24" long 7/8" thick stock for some future project and start over?

I have some rocking chair runner stock around here too. Stand it on end and give it a few days - MAYBE it will be useable for your table.

[Brad Olson]

Wood will always move after resawing. I usually bank for an 1/8" on each side (~1/4" oversize) but this depends on the wood, how it was cut etc.

Quatersawn wood will twist and bow the least and flatsawn is the worst and some species are really prone to getting bent out of shape after resawing. Wild grained cherry will bow and twist a lot if you don't acclimate thick pieces to your shop before resawing. Even then it will still move a lot, so I always give cherry a bit extra room to move.

it is also a good idea to wait 2 weeks after resawing before final milling to let it work itself out and equilibrate. Stack and sticker it in a place that is not too far off the conditions of where the wood will be in the completed piece. Oddly enough if you are making furniture one of the best places to store wood while it is acclimating to your home conditions is underneath a bed or couch. It is always fun expalining that one to your wife.

[Alan Turner]

I ifnd this happens often, and esp. with white oak. It is tough to dry to a consistent MC throughout its thickness. I built a small chest of drawers, and wanted to bookmatch the top and side panels (slab sided piece). I was shooting for a finished thickness of 13/16, and ended up netting a light 5/8", just barely. Hard maple will also do this on occassion, although white oak is o ne of hte worst offenders.
If I needed to net 1" in white oak, I would go with 5/4, and try to remove roughtly equal amounts form both sides of each board. But, after the initial four squaring operation, I would stack and sticker and see what reaction you get from the wood. In general, I find WO to be a PITA to work.

[Michael Adelong]

Thanks for the replies. It just wasn't what I was expecting to encounter on my first try.

I'm just going to mill it all down to 7/8" and go with it. There are no other pieces to match this one to so no one will ever know.

I expected the resaw process itself to be much harder. At least this little adventure go me past the apprehension of doing it wrong and messing up the universe... Oops... other job... :rolleyes:

Michael

[Michael Adelong]

If I had to guess.I would say that you relieved stress.

Not really... It took 4 beers to make me feel ok about messing up a $30 hunk of timber. ;)

Michael

[Rob Russell]

Not really... It took 4 beers to make me feel ok about messing up a $30 hunk of timber. ;)

Michael

Just be glad it wasn't a hunk of cocobolo or wenge ... :D

[Michael Adelong]

Not a chance of that happening Rob. Not until I build at least 1 project out of oak or something else successfully first.

I resawed the other 8' timber last night. I experienced the same issue as with the 4 footer multiplied by 2. By the time I got to the last inch of the timber, the bow was so bad that it literally blew the last inch of the cut apart before I could resaw it. The force pushing the halves of the board apart knocked the fence on my BS out of alignment. I need to tighten the screws tighter next time.

To add insult to injury, I just figured out that the outfeed table on my jointer is a set just a little bit too high. I discovered that after I tapered one end of a board too thin to use in my project. Oh well.. .

I think the timbers that I bought weren't dry enough. I guess I need to purchase a moisture content meter. Do ya'll think that the MC of these timbers was what cause my problem?

Michael

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Gee Michael, it sounds like you are going through the same problems I had the first time I tried to resaw some wood!!

On a really dry piece of wood, even say a 2x6, does this happen?

I is most likely what everyone has said, the wood is not TOTALLY dry and or there was some internal stress (in the wood ;)) that made this happen.

Try resawing a 3' long 2x6 and see what happens, there is an outside chance your bandsaw is not set up quite right, but I doubt it, it is probably the wood "expressing" itself, and when it does that, stand back and let it run it's course, there is nothing you can do about it.

BTW, there is a reason why rough 8/4 is cheaper than finished 4/4 stock, and now you have first hand experience why!!

BTW, where does your fence on your bandsaw end?

I have a dedicated re-saw, and my fence ends at the back of the blade, that way if there is any warping, the wood is free to move with out putting as much stress on my blade by pushing between the blade and the fence.

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/the_doors/bb_beech_cut_end.jpg
sorry not the best pic, but you can see the actual stock fence does not even go as far as the back of the blade.

Just a thought.

Cheers!

[Barry O'Mahony]

This often happens due to "case hardening"; i.e., the wood is dried too fast. The outer layers become so dense that moisture from the inside has trouble permeating through it. Internal stresses build up, which gets released when you resaw.

BTW, expecting to get two 1" thick finished pieces from 8/4 stock is asking the impossible.

[Michael Adelong]

I guess I'm just learning the hard way. I'll have to get some more wood to destroy on my lunch hour tomorrow. :) This is getting to be an expensive coffee table :D.

On the bright side, I do have some nice assorted pieces of 5/8", 3/4", and one plank of 7/8" oak for future projects.

Stu, the fence on my saw goes all the way past the blade to the back of the table. I think that in this case, not having the fence tightened down too well saved the blade. If the fence hadn't shifted, the only other place for the wood to go would have been back towards the blade.

Where were you LAST week, Barry? Hehe... The 5/4 at the wood store was all twisted and warped. I couldn't imagine ending up with anything close to an inch after straightening it out. Tomorrow, I will be going to a different store and I will look for either 10/4 to resaw it to get 2 1" thick boards or some 5 or 6/4 to get one board from.

M-

[Jeff Borges]

Just be glad it wasn't a hunk of cocobolo or wenge ... :D

I need the 4 beers just to want to try cutting into nice wood sometimes..but then I just grab the remote.. for safety's sake, you know......:p