Tool drawer organizer: twist in top board

[Luis Reyes]

Hoping to get some help here! I’m building the Paul sellers tool drawer organizer where I routed some stopped dados in the top and bottom boards where the sides will fit in. I thought I had flat boards but when trying a dry fit of the carcass it wasn’t fitting properly and I discovered the top board has some twist. Any suggestions on how to fix?


It’s a 1/2 inch dado and side boards are 3/4 thick. Depth of dado is 1/4 inch and I had route a 1/4 inch rabbet in the side boards so I effectively fit 1/2 inch into the dado and 1/4 inch rests on the bottom board.

do I remove the twist and then re-route the 1/4 in depth dado?

[Brian Tymchak]

You can joint/plane the twist out of the top and bottom, but you end up with a thinner board. If that's ok for your project, you can give that a try. However, if the board twisted after you milled it the first time, it's likely going to do it again. The upside is that a thinner board might be flexible enough to draw the twist flat depending on your method of fastening. However, ultimately, I believe I would remake the piece taking care to use stable stock, rough milling to near final dimension, stickering under weight for a couple days to allow the board to balance to the environment moisture-wise, and then mill to final dimension.

[roger wiegand]

I think your choices are to plane it flat and make whatever changes that requires or make a new piece. I'd choose the latter. I'd worry that a piece that is actively moving during the project will continue to do so, either in the same direction or going back where it came from when the humidity changes again.