planing question on twisting after planing

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I am getting set to make cabinet doors and drawers for my kitchen. I have to date made 2 tables ( Links to pics below) I walnut for 1 year old granddaughter and farm table out of curly maple. Back to issue at hand. I made the front for under my sink and it got a little twist after planning it. Should I "Skip Plane" it first and let it sit for a few days before planing it to desired thickness? We always run thru jointer/planer to get a flat side before going thru thickness planer. Our shop is small and now has very little heat ( heater went out and is shot) so we use a propane heater. We get it to 48-55 in shop (garage) then when done we shut it off. Im in Iowa it is winter. It seems to stay around 30 in garage without heat. We insulated it pretty good.
Any ideas or thought on what I need to be doing?
Constructive Criticism is welcome....I use it as a learning tool.

Thanks Mike

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My comments are free and worth every penny. So they might be completely off base. :rofl:

Yes, it is almost always the best choice to flatten and 'lightly' plane first. sticker the boards and let them sit for a couple of days prior to taking them to final dimension. I often wish I followed my own advice. :eek:

Something else to consider is your heating issue. The 25 degree temperature swings are not helping your situation. Also, using a propane heater (unvented I assume) can add a tremendous amount of humidity to the shop. So, heating everything up with humid heat, then letting it cool 25 degrees and drying out would seem to me to be raising havoc with your lumber.

Just my 2 cents, and worth even less. :D
 
I agree with Rennie (especially the part about following my own advice), and really want to repeat the moisture point on the heater. But it seems like a combination of all the above that's causing problems (to me).
 
Rennie,
Thanks for the free 2 cents!!! I never even considered the humidity with the propane heater. Thanks for pointing that out. I am currently attempting to purchase a 1250 sq.ft building for a wood shop. I thought finding the cash to do it would be hard......nope. The wife is fighting me on it!
 
Fred, Thank you for also jumping in......I feel like I got 4 cents now!! As I said the Rennie...I never thought about the humidity issue with propane. If I can buy the building I want for a wood shop that should take care of heating and cooling issues.....Just need the approval from a wife is saying NO!!!!!!!!
 
You might consider bringing the boards into the house to acclimate for a week or so and then plane a bit more off and do this again. Also wood with big knots will have lots of tension in them so another option would be to make some cauls and plane a bit off clamp cauls every ft. or so and let the board sit in the house for a while to see what happens. The best bet option would be to use the cauls in a kiln to get it dried under caul pressure and then hand plane it smooth.

A moisture meter is handy to determine if the wood is dried properly. I do know that many walnut woodworkers choose not to kiln dry that wood because it changes the color to an even color which mutes the beauty of air drying.

You can make your own cauls by running some 1 to 1-1/4 x 3" hardwood boards through a planer on a sled with a 1/4" or maybe thicker shims under both ends This way the pressure rolls will bow the board in gradually toward the center and take off more stock near the ends. This give a gentle curve to the caul allowing you to put even clamping (curved side down) pressure across the whole face of the slab.

I haven't done this yet so take the advice for what it is. I do have a friend who makes very large -long and wide tables for people and this is his method. I know this because I supply his planks sometimes.
 
I agree with everything said with one addition, when you sticker the wood i have also fou d it helpful to cover the whole pile with a plastic sheet and to have plywood or your bench as the substrate you set said pile on. this helps even any airflow and not have the top and bottom layers unevenly drying. i had similar issues with a basement shop i used to have and this method worked very well. in fact i use it whenever i need to let stock sit.
 
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