Thread: a banana or is it a lemon

as you would know, the piece that you buy has settled down and is retaining it's shape.
I think it is the luck of the draw when you resaw it. If it hasn't dried thoroughly the the odds are against you more.
les

I was told that as soon as you thickness or plane a dried piece of timber, it will commence to bow as the new surface interacts with the humidity.

Yes, but last year I purchased an 8ft plank 3" thick of sycamore and commenced resawing and every bit of that timber remained stable from the day of purchase.
So timber surely can be classed as merchantable quality or not?

If you go to a chain store and purchase a woolen jumper (natural product) and it shrinks or stretches first time of wearing or washing, a retailer would be obliged to refund on grounds of not merchantly quality. Why should timber be different.

If that is the piece from the new pencil box april 2010 thread, I'm not surprised that it has moved.

Looking closely at the pics in the other thread, it looks like the board was cut from a section of the tree that had a biggish branch growing out of it and because you've re-sawn it, you released a lot of tension from the timber and once you do that, it'll move.

If you want to keep using it, I'd probably re-saw it all now, stack it with racking sticks fairly close to each other with a bit of weight on the pack and leave it for at least a fortnight maybe longer to stabilise. It might work then it might not, depends on how much tension the timber is still holding.

Many thanks DJ for your reply, yes it is that last pencil box.

I was just about to post another reply on this thread and your post came in.

I picked up that piece of timber again this morning the same piece pictured above and blimey, its almost straightened again overnight in the centrally heated room.

So bearing in mind this timber was purchased to make boxes and carcasses, mine are usually finished to around 9 or 10 mm thickness and upto 100mm wide, how would you DJ recommend I resaw that board.

It is 5ft long 12" wide and 3" thick. (1500mm x 300mm x 75mm)

PS my bandsaw can only cope with a 6" depth of cut.

I would try and work out what I want out of it and then re-saw it all just slightly oversize, rack it all out with stickers every 150 to 200mm and let it sit with a bit off weight on top for as long as I could.

So if finished thicknesses are 9 or 10mm, I'd probably look at cutting them at 12 to 15mm thick to allow for a bit of movement and planing/thicknessing to remove saw marks. Would keep stock at full length as that'll give you choices to cut out bad sections.

And when you get around to getting it to final dimensions, try to take equal amounts of each side of the board as I believe it does make a difference

I reckon that the seller was having a tug of your pedal extremities when he said it was air dried ( I reckon her pointed his wife's 'air dryer at it for 15 seconds and that constituted "air-dried" as far as he was concerned).

I would sticker it and leave it in your shop for about 24 months and see how it settles out and then resaw it.

ISTR a song about a piano removalist by Bernard Cribbens ("Right said Fred" seems to ring a bell...). At the end is the motto with timber - "You don't get nowhere bein' 'asty...."

Which is pretty much what DJ just said!!

Originally Posted by jmk89

I reckon that the seller was having a tug of your pedal extremities when he said it was air dried ( I reckon her pointed his wife's 'air dryer at it for 15 seconds and that constituted "air-dried" as far as he was concerned).

You could be right Jeremy, but I'll just point out that I have re-sawn various pieces of timber that I know have been air drying for a long period of time and still see quite a few of them them moving like buggery.

If I write off this piece of timber for boxes (it is already 8" wide) and use it for turning would that be the better use of timber for its future use?

Originally Posted by DJ's Timber

You could be right Jeremy, but I'll just point out that I have re-sawn various pieces of timber that I know have been air drying for a long period of time and still see quite a few of them them moving like buggery.

You're right DJ. If there are internal stresses that resawing releases it is like letting go of a spring. The bu55er will move.

But most movement is caused by inadequate drying.

Originally Posted by jow104

If I write off this piece of timber for boxes (it is already 8" wide) and use it for turning would that be the better use of timber for its future use?

I believe that you'll be able to salvage a fair amount of it for box making John, just needs time to stabilise after been re-sawn.

If you want to find out how dry it actually is, cut a few small pieces of equal sizes, say 100mm along the grain x 50mm x 10/20mm thick and then weight them.

Throw one of them into the microwave for short burst of say 30 seconds, maybe 60 seconds in a sealed bag or Janet will not be happy with you, and allow it to cool in between each burst, otherwise it will burn, also open bag between each cycle and preferably outside or under the range hood above your stove. Keep weighting it till it shows no more weight loss or condensation in the bag and then allow it to sit for a day or two in a room that isn't heated or air-conditioned to acclimatise. Then re-weight to see what the weight is, it should be a bit higher then what the final drying weight was.

Put one piece in your centrally heated room and then see what it weights each day till it no longer shows any weight drop.

Same for the workshop.

If any of these pieces show a fairly big differences of weight, then you can say it wasn't seasoned but if it is only small amount between all of them, then it was probably fairly well seasoned.

Seeing that the original piece was 12" wide x 3" thick and your location, I'd probably want to be letting it season for at least 4 yrs if I was selling a piece like that before I would say it was seasoned for furniture or box making and would also most likely tell any one that if that they were to resaw it, to rack it and allow it to stabilise for a week before starting the project

Originally Posted by jmk89

You're right DJ. If there are internal stresses that resawing releases it is like letting go of a spring. The bu55er will move.

But most movement is caused by inadequate drying.

I agree in regards to stresses but don't necessarily agree on the movement due to inadequate drying, if it has tension in it, it will move, I've re-sawn pieces that had been drying for donkeys years and were dried correctly and still had movement.

Timber is a natural product and will move regardless of how well dried/seasoned, constructed, finished or braced.

Thanks for replies. I will follow your instructions and post in the future.

DJ, I have not had any opportunity to do the dry test yet.

However my post of 6 above where I refer to the timber twisting and next day flat again has another twist to tell.

Today 48 hours later and still in central heating it has twisted again, I assume it is the tension you have referred to?