Correcting wood defects prior to thicknessing/planing
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Tagged: cupping, twisting, wood defects
- This topic has 8 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 4 months ago by Kirk Zabolio.
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Hi all, I don’t have a car big -nor rough- enough to transport big pieces of lumber, and for the small quantities I’d buy the cost of delivery from a lumber yard surpasses the cost of the wood itself. That leaves me buying wood online at Home Depot at least for my first experiments (total newbie here).
Maybe they surprise me, but I think I’ll get some badly twisted/cupped/bowed/younameit pieces in the shipment. Is there a way to correct those defects before cutting and planing the stock?
I’m thinking on the lines of soaking the wood and then leaving it to dry with weights on. Or maybe for a smaller piece “sandwich” it between two straighter pieces and bake it in a kitchen oven.
Is there a proven technique to salvage some of the preemptively declared bad pieces?
4 December 2015 at 2:07 pm #132864Two points Andres. One, I don’t own a thicknesser/planer and two, I couldn’t fit one into my sentry-box workshop so I cannot offer any advice on that side of things.
However, I can point you toward a couple of videos that Paul has done on squaring and truing up of twisted/bowed stock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl5Srx-Ru_UAs an aside, in a previous life I was a construction site manager for more than 20 years and on a few occasions throughout that time I have returned full wagon loads of timber to the supplier because of the amount of cupped, bowed or twisted lengths on the wagon. Also, I recall one load of flooring went back because just about every length had a deep planing snipe 8″ or 9″ from one end, probably because the planing operator didn’t have the patience to wait until the board naturally fed through the machine and yanked the board through the last foot of planing.
I mention this because here in the UK we have a law that states whatever you buy has to be fit for purpose and I wonder if you have something similar there in the states. I know there is a buggeration factor involved but can you not return any unsatisfactory materials at the sender’s expense? After all, you are paying for straight and true stock.
5 December 2015 at 5:55 am #132885I think you’re only going to be able to correct any issues to a certain point. So the boards are going to have to be in fairly decent shape to begin with. The videos Paul has on preparing rough stock is your best bet I think.
Will HD at least let you pick out what’s going to be delivered? I know they let you rent flat beds. The cost of one hours use and picking out your own wood might outweigh any delivery cost.
Good luck
KevinNot sure what car you have but I too don’t have a truck or purpose built vehicle to transport my lumber. But I do have a four door car with rear seats that fold. I bought a couple of padded blankets like movers use and I just keep them in the trunk. By wrapping the lumber I don’t have to worry about it cutting my leather seats. I can carry 7 foot pieces this way if I overhang the center console. The place I buy lumber will cut longer pieces so as long as I have a cut list in mind it works fine. I have got HD to cut plywood down for me but I’m not sure if they will cut other wood?
Now learning how to better select my hardwood is still an ongoing process!
Wayne
Hi, thank you for your answers.
I’m just getting my feet wet in woodworking, and my purchases never exceed 4 boards and 6 2×4, too small a cargo to justify a flatbed, and too big for my Honda Fit.
Of course I’ve watched Paul’s stock preparation videos, but I worry that you end up removing far too much material, almost negating the advantage of buying dimensioned lumber (yes, depending on how disastrous the state of the pieces).
If you experienced woodworkers say “it works that way, you have to buy oversized and find your piece by removing all that extra stuff”, maybe I’ll buy a table saw or an electric planer to deal with the worst parts and hand plane from there to smoothness.
I was hoping to find some magical tip, around the lines of “get the concave side wet and park your car on the wood overnight” to get the occasional bad piece from fugly to somewhat workable.
Have a great weekend and happy woodworking to all 🙂
Andres
6 December 2015 at 11:09 pm #132928Hell, don’t tell my lady wife about your magical tip. She might ask me lay down on the drive this evening.
If you order boards, the store clerk rounding them up for you will not care if they are straight or bent or whatever. You will most likely end up with the rejects everyone else went through. They walk up pick threw them and put the ones they don’t want back on top of the stack and those are the ones the clerk will grab for you the ones on top, that’s the way it works. I would go to the store and pick your boards, put them on a cart and tell them you want these delivered to you, YOU ARE PAYING THEM. remember that and if they cause trouble give them hell and talk to a manager. Maybe you know somebody who can meet you there and haul them for you? give them gas money or whatever.
Table saw and a planer are big investments for someone getting their feet wet i think. Super cheap models wont do you justice and you’ll always fight them and be unhappy. However the heavy duty jobsite type will be nice if you have the room and relatively inexpensive for what they do. I’m not saying you shouldn’t get either they’re both nice for roughing a lot of work. But do keep in mind that thickness planners do not flatten your boards a twisted board go in twisted and comes out twisted. If you put a bent board threw the table saw the side on the fence will either ride the fence and bind it all or you put a cupped board threw and the side getting cut isnt square because your boards not flat to the table. You can somewhat remove defects with both tools with multiple passes removing less material thats not all so enjoyable. Manufacturers recommend putting your boards threw a joiner to flatten and square pieces on one side first and then use those.
If you choose hand tools to true your timber or machine, both ways you end up removing the same amount of material to get perfect boards. Most likely they will move again slightly after you cut and plane them and expose new grain anyway. Hope this helps
22 December 2015 at 10:10 pm #133349Buy wide stock, most of the time the heart of the tree is in the center of the board. If you cut out the pith you will end up with quarter sawn or rift sawn wood. This should take care of most of the cupping problems and leave you with some pretty stable wood.
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