QSWO Movement after milling/planing

[Neil Gaskin]

I'm looking for advice or tips on preventing movement during/after planing material to thickness.

I am using 8/4 QSWO planed down to 1 1/4" finished thickness. Boards are approximately 9' long.

The material acclimated to the shop for over 6 weeks before today. The shops temperature is regulated and typically about 70% with +-/ 50% humidity. MC of the material was 7.1% at the highest reading today, mostly between 6.5-7.0 taken at several places on each board. All material started between 6-8" wide was ripped down 5.5" before planing.

One face was run on the jointer then planed down flipping over with each pass through the planer. We took about but no more than 1/16" with each pass. Finish thickness was just a hair over 1 1/4". All the planing was completed at the same time.

The boards started out flat and ended up bowed like bananas. I need these to be mostly arrow straight to be used as door stiles for two custom storm doors. I will say I've had this happen before but not typically with all the material, maybe a board out of batch, not all of them.

Would milling a lesser thickness over a period of days make a difference? I've heard mixed and conflicting advice on this in the past but I'm certainly willing to give it a try.

Would ripping most of the material on our band-saw then planing to smooth the last +/- 1/8" make any difference?

Any advice is appreciated, thank you in advance.

[Norb Schmidt]

I'm no expert in wood movement, but it sounds like internal stresses caused by drying it improperly. QS wood should not move that much - certainly not banana like. And if they're all doing it, and you bought them all from the same bundle - chances are a drying/internal stress issue. Any chance you can call the supplier and discuss the issue/return/refund the deal?

[Mel Fulks]

White oak is pretty stable. I face the convex side , plane other side then sight down length. Keep planing on convex side.
I can do white oak that has only been acclimated a couple of days and it will stay straight. Because of liability fears most
gurus say face concave side. That does not work as well for making wood straight.

[brent stanley]

You removed a lot of material and the wood is going to respond to the change even if it was dried perfectly. Not always, but with that much removed there's a good chance. You should joint and plane in a couple steps....once down to maybe 1/8 over thickness, let it sit and do what It's going to do for a day or so, and then joint and plane to final thickness.

B

[Al Weber]

Sounds like classical case hardening to me due to incorrect kiln conditions. I've had this happen with maple where the entire purchase was bad. Maybe your supplier will step up but they may not have dried the material so you are back to the kiln operator. I just never bought from that supplier again.

[Mel Fulks]

Nothing wrong with acclimating ,but wood can move with every pass thru planer. Forget "equal" planing and remove from
convex side.

[Mark Hennebury]

I agree that it is probable a kiln drying problem.

I never used a moisture meter, but you can get a good idea if the wood is stable and stress-free by resawing and observing.

Even under normal conditions I would also dress it oversize, watch what happens, let it sit for days or weeks and then redress to final size.

For future reference; resaw a piece when it arrives and see what happens; this will let you know the condition of the wood when it arrives at your shop, and gives you the chance or returning it. Once it has sat in your shop for weeks it is more difficult to argue who's fault it is. Even after sitting in your shop for weeks, You should again resaw a piece prior to using, just to make sure that it is going to behave.

[Robert Engel]

All the planing was completed at the same time.

Yeah, you never want to mill in one session, even if the wood is acclimated because you never know what internal stresses exist. Going slowly allows you to see wha the wood is doing and reface each time. I probably would have done these in 3 sessions with at least a week between.

If the wood has stress, you will still get some twisting but if you go in steps and rejoint each time, you (probably ;-) won't get as much deviation.

It is possible to fix this by resawing the boards, re-gluing & clamp to a straight substrate while glue is drying. Use hard setting glue like epoxy or resin glue.

You will end up with less than 1 1/4" though.

[Neil Gaskin]

Nothing wrong with acclimating ,but wood can move with every pass thru planer. Forget "equal" planing and remove from
convex side.

Can you explain what you mean by remove from the convex side? Are you referring to the way the board may already be bowed or from looking at growth rings?

[Mel Fulks]

The way the board is bowed. Many here can attest to seeing the material move instantly ,and that sometimes it doesn't
work. But it never makes the problem worse. Sometimes you can actually get board perfectly straight ....but you still have
to take off another 1/16 th. That's when you really feel the pressure!