Door warpage: Need help!

[Dale Critchlow]

I am building a Thomas Moser Shaker style wardrobe in cherry and am having problems with warpage of the doors.

The doors are 68" by 17" and have two panels with 2 1/2" by 1" rails and styles. I had the lumber in my shop for several months. I did the final sizing and cut the mortises and tenons a couple of weeks before I did the glue up.

The newly assembled doors were flat and I installed them on the wardrobe a week or so after glue up. They fit quite well. I then took them off and put them aside for a few weeks while I did other work. I stood them on end against a wall.

I put them back on the wardrobe this morning and there is a considerable amount of warpage. If I align the bottom of the doors, the top is out by almost 1/2".

We have been having some very humid weather during the last few weeks.

Is it possible to bring them back into line by clamping them with spacers to give some overcompensation? I was thinking that if they are clamped during this very humid weather and leave them clamped until it gets dryer, it might staighten them out. Then when I put on the door catches, they might hold the doors flat. Does this make sense or will them be likely to warp again?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dale Critchlow

[Carl Eyman]

I can't see that it would do any harm to try that, Dale. The chances of them coming back to dead flat on their own are probably pretty slim.

[Lee Schierer]

Sounds like uneven moisture. Try putting them back in the same place the other side out for a couple of days.

[Per Swenson]

Dale,

Have you applied any finish on the doors yet?

P.

[Per Swenson]

Ok, no answer yet, so I am going to guess they are not.

Well, I hope not. As I mentioned in another thread concerning cupped boards,

If you apply moisture, (a damp paper towel) to the offending side of the warp.

The door will straighten out. I am using this dash and parenthesis to show what I mean.

-)
Once the door or piece of wood stabilizes, I suggest you apply a coat of sealer such as shellac.

It is kinda of tricky, takes time and patience, but it works.

Per

[Dale Critchlow]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Per: The rails and styles are unfinished. I put a coat of danish oil on the panels before I did the glue up. I assume the dash is the damp paper towel and the parenthesis is the door in your -).

I will start doing some experimenting tomorrow.

Dale Critchlow

[Per Swenson]

Yes dale, you are correct.
This will work on you rails and styles.
To get a Idea how this works, take a piece of unfinshed anything.

plywood, mdf, pine, whatever(leave the cherry in the house) out form
inside and leave it in the hot sun for a hour.

Then dampen that side and flip it over.

This will happen so fast it is not controlable, but you can then
see how the selective application of moisture will straighten

warped stuff.

I hope this helps.

per

[Dale Critchlow]

Per: I would like to hear more about your experiences with sealing the door after it has been straightened by applying moisture to one side.

I wonder if the moisture will eventually become uniformly distributed throughout the wood. In which case the warp may return.

Thanks,

Dale

[Per Swenson]

Dale,

I go through this alot, well, I can be lazy.
I make extra doors. I make extra rails and stiles.
I buy my lumber in bulk and end up mixing it up.

You know stuff from outside under the tarp with stuff
from a airconditioned shop. Oh and yeah I always have a moisture meter.
Once I have a board back to normal, or a rail, stile etc, and exposed to a stable enviroment , I seal it paying close attention to the endgrains.

After that, no more problems.

I generally try to avoid this issue by doing everything in the same weather cycle. Of course this never works out with reality.

one more thing, try to think of wood as a dish sponge.
You know how they are perfect when you take themout of the package.

well that is how I picture lumber fresh out of the drying kiln.

The job is to get it back to that state after it got wet and unevenly dried causing the warp.


Per