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  1. 8th October 2021, 07:51 AM #1
    randall
    randall is offline New Member
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    Default Skin/wrap a steel post with ironbark post

    Hi All,
    long time reader - first time poster .

    I've got a single steel post (90*90) (for rigidity) in an outdoor structure. For the other 3 posts I've bought are rough 150x150 ironbark posts - that I'll dress. The timber is only seasoned a few months & still fairly green (~9% moisture according to my cheap moisture meter).

    My plan for wrapping the steel post:
    Take a 150x150 post and cut 30mm off each face - then glue back together over the steel post with a bunch of biscuits. This gives me a fake post with continuous grain around it. My main concern is wood movement as the timber dries. The posts are cut with the pith in the middle of the post - so might be lots of cupping?

    Apparently you just oil the posts (to prevent drying too fast) and wood movement is minimal. Would this be the same for my fake post? Perhaps oil the inside & outside?

    Thanks for any advice people have.
    Cheers
    Randall
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  3. 8th October 2021, 09:53 AM #2
    BobL
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    If you glue the piece to the post the cladding will definitely crack as it dries. Even if the gluelike/biscuits hold it will crack elsewhere. Given its just decorative it may be better to make the cladding 2-3 mm wider than the steel post and pack the gap with some dense foam then any shrinkage will just compress the foam.

    Either way I'd rip the post to the 30mm thickness and wait for a year or so for it to dry the pieces out more.
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  4. 8th October 2021, 04:44 PM #3
    elanjacobs
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    Further to that, I'd be fixing the boards with the face that's outside of the tree facing in. The natural direction of movement is for the rings to straighten, so having the outside face in will mean that the corners will want to move towards each other and stay tight. Having the outside face out could increase the likelihood of the corners popping open over time.
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  5. 11th October 2021, 07:32 AM #4
    randall
    randall is offline New Member
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    Thanks Guys. I cut up a post over the weekend & it twisted and warped straight off the saw. Internal moister was 16%... so now its stickered and drying. No way I can use it for skinning a post.

    All good tho - I'll have some usable timber in 12 months.
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