Help with cracked wood cabinet!!!!!!!!

[William Giardelli]

Hello Everybody,
I am not a woodworker but I’m looking for some advice and I hope this is the place to get it.
About a year ago I decided to have a custom audio cabinet made. I found a furniture maker on the internet, read some reviews on his work and even read a very positive review about him in a woodworkers magazine.
After some research and consideration I decided to go with a solid curly cherry wood. The whole process took about seven months and the first week of 2006 my audio cabinet was delivered. It was beautiful and I couldn’t have been happier with it.
I had the cabinet two months when I discovered a 12” crack going up the left side of the cabinet and a small one going up the right side. I contacted the furniture maker and he arranged to have it picked up and delivered to his shop for repairs. He lives about fifteen hundred miles away from me.
My problem is this. I don’t know if I want him to replace the sides with solid cherry again and risk the possibility of having it crack again. Why did it crack so soon? Should I have him replace the sides with curly cherry plywood? I know that I can get cherry plywood, but do they make plywood in curly cherry?
I wood appreciate any help I can get answering these questions and any other advice that you might have.
Thanks,
Bill

[Chris Barton]

Hi Bill,

Pictures would be helpful but, the crack is due to a change in the moisture in the solid curly cherry panel. Believe it or not, few woodworkers actually own a moisture meeter. When the piece was in this guys shop it was at a higher relative humidity than you house. What part of the country is the builder located and does he have a climate controlled shop environment for both building and storage of the wood?

Anyway, for large panels ply with the wood of choice is one solution to this, but only a partial solution. The fact the panel cracked also suggests that it was built in a way that didn't allow for wood movement and that's is necessary for all larger pieces made from solid wood.

Good Luck

[Steve Clardy]

Welcome to the creek!!

Sounds like wood movement was the culprit.
I never use solid wood for large areas, except maybe a table top. I use ply.

[William Giardelli]

Gentleman,
Thank you for your responses. The cabinet was made in Tennessee and I live in New York, so there is a difference in temperature and humidity. I don’t know if his shop is climate controlled or if he even has a moisture meter.
I don’t know what size is considered to be a large panel, but this is only a 24" x 43” panel.
If plywood is the solution to this problem, can I get plywood in curly cherry?
Thanks,
Bill

[Steve Clardy]

Its available.
Hang on for sticker shock.

[William Giardelli]

Steve,
I am into this cabinet for over $3200.00 as of now. The cabinet maker told me he would solve my problem at no additional cost to me. I told him that I would split the cost of shipping with him. I'm trying to be fair. If I have to kick in a few bucks to make this right, I will. I love the way the cabinet looks and would like to have it for a long time. I wish I had some pictures to post.
Bill

[Steve Clardy]

Would be great to see some pics if you could.

[William Giardelli]

By the way, How expensive is a sheet of curly cherry plywood and where can I get it?
Bill

[Chris Barton]

Bill,

Where in TN? I live in Nashville. Curly chery would be a special order item and would likely run around 200/4x8 sheet for 7 ply 3/4".

[William Giardelli]

I don't know if this will work but I think you can copy the links and paste them into your spacebar to see some pictures of the cabinet that were sent to me by the builder.
You may be able to just click on them.


http://adsfree01.mail.com/getattach/P1010005.JPG?folder=INBOX&msg_uid=1135217402&partsno=2&filename=P1010005.JPG

http://adsfree01.mail.com/getattach/P1010007.JPG?folder=INBOX&msg_uid=1135217402&partsno=3&filename=P1010007.JPG

http://adsfree01.mail.com/getattach/P1010013.JPG?folder=INBOX&msg_uid=1135217402&partsno=4&filename=P1010013.JPG

http://adsfree01.mail.com/getattach/P1010020.JPG?folder=INBOX&msg_uid=1135217402&partsno=5&filename=P1010020.JPG

http://adsfree01.mail.com/getattach/P1010027.JPG?folder=INBOX&msg_uid=1135217402&partsno=6&filename=P1010027.JPG

http://adsfree01.mail.com/getattach/P1010028.JPG?folder=INBOX&msg_uid=1135217402&partsno=7&filename=P1010028.JPG

thanks,
Bill

[William Giardelli]

Hi Chris,
You guys have been having some nasty weather latey. He is from Memphis.
Bill

[Chris Barton]

Bill,

We managed to dodge most of the bad stuff. The pics can't be seen. Try resizing them to where they'er 100kb or less in size and attach them using the "manage attachments" button below in the additional options box.

[William Giardelli]

Okay, I never did this before so I hope it works.

[Steve Clardy]

Nice cab!! Round front door and glass. Nice

[William Giardelli]

Hey, it worked. One more.

[Steve Clardy]

Oops!! Wet into cyber space and got lost?

[William Giardelli]

Okay, I'll try it again.

[William Giardelli]

So, back to my original question. Do I have him do it again in solid curly cherry or do I have him do it in curly cherry plywood. Knowing what you know. What would you do?
Thanks,
Bill

[Chris Barton]

So Bill, could you tell if the crack was where 2 of the boards were glued together or did it look like a crack in one of the boards? Looking at the photographs I can tell a few things. First, this is a quality builder. Second, the top and sides are glued up stock (not one big board). If the cracks are where two of the boards meet then it is probably be from either a poor glue up (possible but, unlikely given the quality of the piece) or, from a bad batch of glue (and this can happen and the builder wouldn't be aware of it. Now, if the cracks occured in a board and not at the glue joint I would be most suspecious of the problem being wood that was not fully cured when the case was constructed. As far as the plywood question goes, I would go for solid wood. This cabinet is not so big that this should have been a wood movement issue. Plus, the top and sides are all grain oriented and should move in concert with one another. In relationship to the piece, where were the cracks?

[William Giardelli]

Chris,
The larger of the cracks is on the left side up close to the front. It is not on a joint but is on the opposite side of a recessed track that is running vertical on the inside of the cabinet. This track is for shelving and will not be used when the cabinet is repaired. I will have him drill holes for shelf spoons. I’m afraid that the track might have been part of the problem.
The second and much smaller crack is on the right hand side toward the back. It also is not on a joint.
The cabinetmaker doesn’t really want to use plywood. He said that it is a nicer job using solid wood and I tend to agree with him, but I don’t want to go through this again.
Thanks,
Bill

[Chris Barton]

Bill,

I sent you a Personal Message (PM). You can see this by clicking on the link under your name at the upper right portion of the page.

My best guess is that your builder used some sort of fastener to join the sides to the top and bottom and that they might be preventing the wood from moving naturally. I agree with your builder that solid is the way to go.

[Chris Barton]

Chris,
The larger of the cracks is on the left side up close to the front. It is not on a joint but is on the opposite side of a recessed track that is running vertical on the inside of the cabinet. This track is for shelving and will not be used when the cabinet is repaired. I will have him drill holes for shelf spoons. I’m afraid that the track might have been part of the problem.


I understand now. The track contributed to the problem but, now I am much more concerned that the builder used wood that was not suffiently dry. Installing a track into the casework then did 2 things. First, it created a weak strip in the carcase since the track is metal and could not move with the wood. Second, the metal essentially became a wedge. When you got the piece in your home where the relative humidity is probably 40% or even lower the wood lost moisture and tried to contract and the metal wouldn't allow that to happen. This caused the crack directly over the track. I bet the other crack is of the same origin.

[William Giardelli]

Chris,
He did say that he never used this track before and liked the way it looked but would not use it again. He said that he usually drills holes and uses brass inserts and shelf spoons.
Bill

[William Giardelli]

Chris,
You have a private message.
Bill

[Dan Forman]

Bill---I see that you are new, so welcome to the creek. If you aren't familiar with the private message feature, private messages can be accessed by clicking on "Private Message" in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

Dan

[William Giardelli]

I would like to thank everyone who helped me today. I will let you all know how I make out.
Thanks,
Bill

[Steve Clardy]

Well. I do agree that solid wood is nicer, better quality, etc.
But I wouldn't.
If this cab would have been ply sides, it wouldn't have happened.
Thats just my opinion. Go with what you want, and if the original cab maker wants to redo as is, then let him. If it fails again, guess will be repairing again. But, as you say, that track may have had something to do with it also.

[William Giardelli]

Steve,
I'm going to talk to him before he starts the repair of the cabinet. I will leave it up to him with the understanding that if it cracks again he will be the one on the hook. He said that he never had this happen before and I believe him. He has proven to be an honest guy. Thanks for your input.
Bill

[Steve Clardy]

Sure. Understand that. I got a email showing a response, from Dan, page 1, and didn't notice there was page 2 yet. Then after I posted, I seen page 2. Lol
Otherwise I wouldn't have responded back knowing the decision you had made.
Hope it works out for you.

[Richard Wolf]

Just to get my $.02 in here. Is it possible there is a heat build up from the audio equipment that is not being vented. This could add to a mositure inbalance in the wood and cause stress in the wood.

Richard

[Chris Barton]

Just to get my $.02 in here. Is it possible there is a heat build up from the audio equipment that is not being vented. This could add to a mositure inbalance in the wood and cause stress in the wood.

Richard

This is a very good point! I really couldn't see any venting.

[Steve Clardy]

Got a shot of the back William?

[William Giardelli]

Good thought about the heat build up, but I think I am ahead of you. I decided to leave the back off of the unit and placed two small whisper fans in it to circulate the air. One fan faces in and the other faces out. They are programmed in my power conditioner to come on anytime the audio equipment is turned on. So I don’t think that it caused the cabinet to crack. But you never know.
Bill

[William Giardelli]

Steve,
The only picture of the back that I have shows the back on. I removed it to place my equipment in it and then decided to leave it off. The tinted glass and the equipment make it almost impossible to see that the back is missing and I wanted to make sure that my equipment didn't over heat.
Bill