8/4 Maple slab

[Jack Frederick]

I have had a +/- 7-6 x 16-22" x 8/4 maple slab for few years and have decided to build a small work bench out of a portion of it. Using winding sticks I was able to see that 54" of it was very close to flat. That is the 16"-18" section. I cut off that 54" section and am confident that I can level that out without a great deal of work and little loss in thickness. It is about the length of the bench I want. The wider 34" x18-22" piece has about a 1/2" diagonal twist to it. There is quite a lot of birds-eye in this piece and it will make a nice table top. How would you handle the twist to retain as much thickness as possible. I think I will have to rip it into 3 - 4 boards and flatten those and glue up. Yes?
I also have an 8/4x6x96" piece of the same wood. It is dead flat and will be used in this for a wider work bench and possibly on the shorter section as well.

[Lamar Keeney]

Don't know how maple works, but a friend dumped a six year dried slab of pine in my yard a few years ago. 3-5/8" th 18"w x 5ft. I trued and sized it by hand. Then left it sitting for six months and sure enough it had bowed 1/8in and cupped 1/16+. I only flattened what was to be the top and it has staid put. Just wondering if the Maple would act the same.

Good luck and keep us posted with the results

[Alan Kalker]

It depends the most on:
- How the board was cut to begin with - rift or flat sawn
- How much it has dried
- Did you remove equal amounts from both sides when milling?
- How much internal forces were released.
- Did you swing a chicken around your head when milling to appease the warping gods?

[Jack Frederick]

Flat
Down, stickered, properly stacked and in my dry dry CA shop for 2.5 yrs
Rough sawn and i don't know i didn't cut it
Enough to create the warp on one end of the 8' board
No, but years ago on the Summer soltice I buried a dead chicken under the porch to get rid of some warts

[Aiden Pettengill]

Maple can warp rather easy sometimes when in contact with water (only a problem if you are setting cups etc. on it once done with the wood) however I don't think that would be an issue given the thickness of the board. I think you would loose only a little less material if you cut it because cutting it won't alleviate the warp. You would however end up with boards of different thicknesses if only planed flat because the warp will naturally be stronger in some places than others. I would just plane as is because you are going to have to make them the same thickness if you cut it anyways and therefor would end up being the same as if you had planed the board whole. Hope it works out for you!
Aiden