Resawn timber cupping

**Bunwoody** · 2nd March 2012, 11:40 AM

I have some rough sawn Marri timber which was strip stacked for 5 years. On Saturday I grabbed a short piece of 200 x 55 and planed and thicknessed the board which ended up being 190 x 50. Then I put it through the bandsaw and sliced it in half to make two boards roughly 22mm thick, then through the thicknesser again to end up with two nice boards 20mm thick. During the week the boards have then cupped and will require planing and thicknessing again at which point my boards will be probably only 15ish mm thick ! Have I done the resawing correctly, or should I be just using the bandsaw first to get two rough sawn boards and let it sit for a week before attempting any planning and thicknessing ??? Any advice on the best method to resaw timber effieciently would be appreciated.

**AlexS** · 2nd March 2012, 02:02 PM

You have it - it's a good idea to leave the rough sawn boards to settle for a couple of days. You may find that the dressed boards you have settle back, give them a while sitting on edge.

**old pete** · 2nd March 2012, 04:22 PM

Hi Bunwoody,

Almost certainly your timber has a moisture content gradient from core to case. Its a big expectation to dry a heavy dense timber at 55mm thickness to an even moisture content without putting in some heat energy along the way.If you dress one face and edge and then split the timber with your band saw and let it settle for a few weeks it will likely be OK. Even better do some MC% tests if you can get hold of a moisture meter.

Cheers Old Pete

**bab600** · 2nd March 2012, 04:45 PM

Could I ask a similar question?

I have some very old and Dry Oregon beams 200 x 100 x 3000 and I need to cut them to size for a table top say100 x 35 and then and let stand for a couple of days / weeks ? and then dress them ? And would it make any difference if I cut 200x35 and let stand and then dress them

Regards

Brian

**old pete** · 2nd March 2012, 05:09 PM

Hi Bab 600,

I don't expect you will have any trouble with your oregon as it dries quickly and without the gradient associated with impermeable hardwoods. I don't thnk youu will find any difference with 200mm and 100mm widths. Why would you want to reduce the table top boards to 100mm width when you could use 200mm. That represents a great deal more jointing gluing etc and makes it more difficult to cramp the boards up as a planar surface. If you do go the 100mm route I'd suggest you mark the boards so you can put them back together again as they were origiinally.

Cheers Old Pete

**BobL** · 2nd March 2012, 05:51 PM

When you say you "grabbed a short piece of . . " , where did you grab it from?

If it was from the stack or a place where the humidity conditions were quite different from your shed I would put the timber in the shed and wait at least a week before rough cutting and then at least a week or maybe even 3 after that before finishing to size.
This is where a moisture meter comes in really handy.

**Bunwoody** · 2nd March 2012, 08:30 PM

Thank you for the advice. I will leave the rough sawn boards in my shed for a couple of weeks before resawing, then I will let these boards sit for a couple of weeks prior to dressing. Hopefully this works. Is two weeks enough time to let the timber acclimatize ? As I want to then join the boards for a top which I don't want to see moving in the future.

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