Thread: Are winding sticks neccessary?

Depends. If your board has no twist no problem. If it does you can use winding sticks to work out where the twist starts and how much at various positions. I can't see you doing this with just a straight edge, particularly over long distances.

A straight edge may just show the amount of twist, whereas winding sticks would multiply that amount depending on the length of the sticks.

Denn

Hi all,
I have never heard of or have seen of a Twisting Stick.
It maybe nice for the rest of us to see a Photo of one,
Just a thought.
Regards,
issatree.
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Originally Posted by issatree

Hi all,
I have never heard of or have seen of a Twisting Stick.
It maybe nice for the rest of us to see a Photo of one,
Just a thought.
Regards,
issatree.
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Have a look here (about page 34/5):
http://www.toolemera.com/bkpdf/haywardhowtobk.pdf

Ok, maybe I missed it can't find any refference to "twisting stick/s"

It is not "twisting stick", it is a "winding stick" (sheesh ).

When a board is "in wind", then it is flat and level in all directions. When it is not, then you have to "un-wind" the board. Hence "winding sticks".

You can make them out of anything. Some are fancy and some are plain.



Place both sticks at the furtherest ends of the board, and use their levels to determine if there is any twist in the board ...



If the levels do not match (as they do here), then move the near stick closer to the further stick, and check again. Move the stick to different points to determine the relative degree of twist at all points.

This is a very accurate method, one you will not replicate with a straight edge.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Where do the batteries fit?

I know they are winding sticks I was refering the post post above and reafirming that they are not twisting sticks. Winding sticks are about the only way to test for wind if hand dressing timber

A board without any bow can be twisted and this will not show up with a straightedge, you need either winding sticks or a surface plate.

hmmm... I still think a straight edge that makes contact in all directions (up-down, left-right, diagonal) indicates a flat surface since it's basically acting as a surface plate. However, like Pusser and dennford mentioned, some of its accuracy might be lost over long distances and it would probably be best to use a winding stick to amplify the error anyway. I just want confirmation that there is no possible way for a face to be out of flat if you can rotate a straight edge on the face with contact in every position. I keep going over it in my head I can't see anyway an untrue board could do that.

...of course you'd have to move the straight edge up-down, side-to-side as well.

Originally Posted by applebuilder

... it would probably be best to use a winding stick ...

A single winding stick (or straight edge( won't show up any twist as echnidna said. You'll need two.

Find a board with a good twist in it and try it out.

I understand that winding sticks come in two, what I meant was it would probably be best to use winding sticks where greater accuracy is required say over longer distances. I'll try to illustrate more clearly the theory I'm trying to confirm:

I attached a horrible picture to help. Basically the large rectangle is the surface we are checking. Now all the little rectangle's inside the large one are the different positions we place the straight edge to check for flat (let's just assume that the straightedge can magically change size). What I'm suggesting is that if the straightedge makes complete contact with the surface in every one of those positions than there should be no way that twist, bow, cup, etc. can be present. That's what I'm trying to confirm anyway, so have at it, thanks.

Hi Applebuilder,

I may be wrong, but I believe your described method using a single straight edge, on a board of the aspect ratio shown will be able to detect twist, bow cup etc. Perfect contact for all 8 measuring positions should confirm a flat board. There could still be bums or hollows in the unmeasured ares though.

However it might be only one of those measurement positions that will show up a defect in the board. Miss that one and you miss the defect. Also you are only sampling 8 positions on the board.

I agree with others that a better and more accurate method is to use the wining sticks, (sliding the second winding stick along the board) and checking the entire surface.

Personally I check by eye first and then wipe my hand over the board, (for smaller boards). I find I can 'feel' deviations better than I can see them. If critical I use winding sticks.

FWIW that is my take on it.

Cheers
Pops