Warm house, cold shop - best practices

[john schnyderite]

I'm going to be working on a river door. I purchased some slabs from a local furniture maker, who is surfacing the faces for me. His shop is indoors and temp controlled, as is the location I will do the assembly -- so my question is, should I take the slabs from their indoor environment and let them acclimate a few days to my unheated shop before running the edge through the jointer and cutting to final height? or is it best if it was acclimated to a heated environment to acclimate to its final resting place where it is already closer to its final moisture/humidity, quickly cut it in my shop and bring it back. I know it takes a few days to acclimate so not sure if it'll have any ill effects (warping) if I take it out of that environment for a short time to cut the length/width.

[Kevin Jenness]

Best practice is to have a climate controlled shop ;).

In your situation I would keep the pieces in your cold shop for as short a time as possible.

Make sure that the slabs are thoroughly acclimated to their use environment. The potential issues in making a composite assembly like this are compounded by the demands of a functional door.

[john schnyderite]

Thanks for chiming in. My garage isn't insulated. I can try to add a electric baseboard heater in advance of working on this in there but I don't imagine it would make a huge difference.

My plan is to bring the slabs into the room where they'll be installed once they are delivered. I'll leave them there for a few days. I'll trim close to my final height with a circular saw so it is more manageable to carry, and trim to width with my track saw if needed. My track saw is a crappy WEN one, which for some reason can't really cut a 90 degree angle...

So I'll bring the slabs down one at a time. 1 quick pass on the jointer to get me a 90 on the edge, then over to the tablesaw to clean up and cut the heights precisely with my crosscut jig. I'd imagine no more than 30 minutes per slab outside.

Then I'll acclimate another week before I pour epoxy, since I prefer to do that on the weekend. Think that'll do the trick? Any adjustments you'd make to this process?



Best practice is to have a climate controlled shop ;).

In your situation I would keep the pieces in your cold shop for as short a time as possible.

Make sure that the slabs are thoroughly acclimated to their use environment. The potential issues in making a composite assembly like this are compounded by the demands of a functional door.

[Jim Becker]

Can you physically handle running the slabs over your jointer to edge joint them and keep them perfectly vertical and against the fence? If the slabs have already been flattened and thicknessed, consider using a router with a long cutter and a known straight edge to clean up the edges and "joint" them prior to assembly.

[John TenEyck]

I think your plan is good. Spend as little time with them in the shop as possible, but you don't have to stress out about it. An hour or two won't be enough to cause any problems. Joint/cut them however best suites you and then take them back to the warm house. All will be well.

John

[Bill Dufour]

Climate? is it 55 in the shop or is it 0? big difference, how is the humidity in both.
Bill D

[john schnyderite]

Can you physically handle running the slabs over your jointer to edge joint them and keep them perfectly vertical and against the fence? If the slabs have already been flattened and thicknessed, consider using a router with a long cutter and a known straight edge to clean up the edges and "joint" them prior to assembly.

Thanks Jim -- you always have a good tip! I'm sure it would be cumbersome on the jointer. I'm guessing I could just use the edge of my tracksaw guide as a reference point for my router to clean up and flatten the edge?

[john schnyderite]

I'd estimate 40s or 50s in the shop. We do leave the garage door open a fair bit, so probably similar to the humidity outside on the given day.


Climate? is it 55 in the shop or is it 0? big difference, how is the humidity in both.
Bill D

[Andrew Seemann]

I'd estimate 40s or 50s in the shop. We do leave the garage door open a fair bit, so probably similar to the humidity outside on the given day.

Going from 40-50F in the shop to 70F inside isn't a big jump. I wouldn't even worry about it.

Around here we deal with things like getting frozen lumber that was stored at the lumber yard in a warehouse where it was 0F and then putting it into a shop or room at 70F.