Wood Movement Has Me Befuddled

[Ron Robinson]

Hello All,

I am making the frame shown below from plans in Woodsmith. I am using walnut. I satrted making this about two weeks ago and everything was going well. I finished all the pieces and did some preliminary assembly and then put on two coats of Watco Danish Oil.

Everything was still good until about three days later. The raised panels would no longer fit in the frames. They are about 1/16" too wide. (They were 4.0" prior to growing.) The grain runs along the length. It has been fairly humid here in SE Ohio, and my gut says to wait a while and the panels will shrink.

My question is: If I wait and the panels fit again, will applying poly or shellac retard or stop the moisture pick-up so I will not have a problem in the future?

Thanks,

Ron Robinson


47071

[Steve Clardy]

Expand in the summer, shrink in the winter.

Usually its best to assemble after parts are made.:)

[Ian Abraham]

You should make the panels 1/16" too small and leave that room for them to expand. They may also shrink 1/16" in the dry weather.
Making a floating panel fit exactly is a bad thing, no room for it to float :o

Finishing will SLOW the moisture gain / loss, but it wont stop it.Just means it will take a month of humid weather instead of a week for it to move. If you assemble them tight and dry, they could expand and push the frame apart later, no matter what you finish them with.

Cheers

Ian

[Howard Acheson]

No, finishing will not prevent wood movement. It will only slow it down somewhat.

As said, you need to build with a view toward wood movement as the seasonal relative humidity changes.

[Jim Becker]

...you need to build with a view toward wood movement as the seasonal relative humidity changes.

And this includes taking into consideration the "when" relative to "when" you build the project.

[Robert Wolf]

Expand in the summer, shrink in the winter.

What about Florida? Its Summer year round here, LOL
RH is 89-91% consistently throughout the year.

[Chris Padilla]

Wow...a 10 year old thread brought back from the ashes!

Consistency is what you're looking for. The wood should be somewhere in the 6-10% MC (moisture content) and once there, in your consistent environment, you should be fine and not have to deal with too much wood movement if any at all.

[Steve Clardy]

Wow. Lol
Hey whatz up bro?

[Matt Day]

Steve, say hello to your self from 10 years ago!

[Steve Clardy]

Hello!!!!!

[Chris Padilla]

Bro!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whassup, Homie?! :)

[Steve Clardy]

Bro!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whassup, Homie?! :)

Jes hanging in here!!! Retired. Working our our little ranch.