Thread: Warping boards

No matter how dry a board is by the very action of cutting a board in half you have exposed the core of that board to the air. This new face must absorb/lose moisture to achieve homeostasis with the atmosphere as a result it will warp.

The amount and how it warps is also influenced by if the board is quartersawn or backsawn.

If you sticker the boards for 1 to 3 weeks then remachine you should be okay.

Also kiln dried (KD) does not lock the moisture content of a board to a specific value. As soon as it comes out of that kiln it’s moisture content goes up and down and then up again.

Their is a story of a laundry fit out done with KD timber after installation the doors all jammed up because the high moisture content of the laundry caused the KD to swell to much.

I have also heard that KD lumber warps more then air dried if you rip it in half as you have done because the kiln drying builds up more residual stress through the drying process.

Thanks for the help, I will leave them for 3 weeks, just in time for Christmas.

Also wondering would it help if I cut and machined the wood, then immediately oiled it?

No - 1 once oiled the glue will not hold. 2 no finish can stop the migration of water from the atmosphere into the wood cells. I once read that it took 25mm thick paraffin wax covered all over to complete stop wood from absorbing atmospheric moisture. So for all practical purposes it is not feasible.

I am not sure how much woodworking experience you have but by the type of questions it’s seems you are new to the game.

You must accept the nature of the beast the great skill one must learn is to work within the constraints of the material. Fight or ignore it and you will disappointed.

The only way to stop all movement is a process called resin impregnation. It will fill every cell fiber with resin aka plastic. Thereby stopping all moisture and movement. However it is only used on small pieces of wood, tool handles, knife scales, hammer heads, fancy pens and turnings.

Nope. Unless it is a 100% waterproof coating, all a finish will do is slow the ingress/egress of moisture from the timber.

I've had massive headaches with this issue as well, with the worst cases being rips of 50mm rough sawn KD boards into halves and watching them become banana peels. As others have said, your best bet is to start with quartersawn material and then let it dry post resawing. Once the timber is stable again, then joint and plane it. If you do the milling before it's stable, it's just going to move again and you'll have to mill it all over again. Just ask me, I've done it often enough.

Stupid me, of course I wouldn’t be able to glue it.
Thanks again for the help.