Thread: How much does indoor furniture timber move in Australia?

Who knows whether it'll warp, but it's certainly going to move. How much will it move?, well, that'll the distance from when it starts moving to when it stops moving, sometimes it's the same distance back again, but not always.

Using breadboards is one solution and it is a little bit hard to do. Also, not everyone likes the look of breadboards.

An easier alternative is to attach the table top to the base using buttons. The buttons will keep your table top flat and allow it to move freely at the same time.

+1 for buttons. A slab-top table (by slab I mean that it's made from the same timber and all the grain runs in the same direction... whether it be an actual milled slab or jointed boards) has the virtues of simplicity to build and there's minimal visual cues when it's moved after completion.

As Wongo mentioned, breadboard ends are a tad more difficult to implement, plus because timber moves at different rates along the grain compared to across the grain, any movement will show up as visual discrepancies between the width of the table and the breadboard ends. Obvious to even non-woodies.

Cupping should only be an issue if the timber is dressed at one of the extremes of humidity... if you mill it to near final size and only dress it after it has "rested" for a few months at the average humidity for it's final abode, then all should be good.

It's also a good idea when joining boards into a slab to look at the end-grain and alternate the boards to "ring curves up," "ring curves down," "ring curves up," etc. so should they want to cup, it's minimised by the boards next to it rather than the whole slab trying to cup in the same direction.

No guarantees, of course. We've all had unpleasant, unexpected surprises due to movement at some point or other.

I don't like the look of breadboard ends either. But i don't see it as much in Australia as other parts of the world. That's why I was wondering whether wood movement is much of an issue here.

I can't see how buttons do much to fight warp, as they are only attached to one board. I was thinking of sliding dovetails. Are there better options other than breadboard ends?

That's one of the reasons for alternating ring direction in the boards.

Most boards, if cut from the same tree, will want to warp or cup in the same direction. Alternating 'em, with a good glue up, means that they'll be constrained by the boards to either side of 'em wanting to move in the opposite direction, being effectively upside down. The two boards on the edges are constrained by the buttons and aprons beneath them.

If they want to twist instead, the same reasoning applies. (Although ring alternation isn't as much of a factor there.)

The use of multiple species in the one top comes with it's own set of dangers. Movement will be unequal as each specie will react differently to moisture variation. Its hard enough to keep like timbers from having a mind of their own.

It looks like no one knows.

I found a lot of information about shrinkage from Green to Air dry, but nothing useful about annual movement once it was air dry.

I work on 5% based on experience with furniture on the NSW coast and central NSW. Air dry moisture content varied from 6% to 14%.

The options for dealing with movement and warping are what has already been said.
Definitely expect it and allow for it.
I have seem 6" decking boards shear off heavy gauge screws that were trying to stop movement.

SWMBO likes to move our indoor furniture every few weeks...

I have to say, as a Canberran, not that much.

Winter, its inside, fires and aircon keep it dry. Summer its aircon, so same humidity - spring and autumn.... its always plesant. It hardly seems to move at all.

I would avoid bread board ends on any table. A nasty look if the does move. Hold it flat, as above with buttons, or big wide cross-ways sliding dovetails. Make it part of the base