How To Flatten a Crooked Board

Dale Wallace

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58
Location
Chicago, Illinois
So a couple of weeks ago I was given a log that was supposed to be complete dry. A customer asked me to make her a pizza tray, apparently though the log wasn't completely dry and the pizza tray after sitting in my house for about 2-3 weeks one of the sides got crooked. I'm including a picture too. Do you have any ideas on how I can make it flat?
 

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That seems to be the most effective and fastest way. The only thing is that it's a finished piece and I don't want any visible parts that will look like they have been glued together. Especially because that will show a rearrangement on the grain. I'll include a picture of the thing so that you know what I mean. It's not great, but it's all done by hand, it has a natural look and the customer was really satisfied so that's all it matters. Some people try to wet the board and apply pressure, or use damp towels and iron. Do you have any ideas on how effective that would be?
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I've had mixed luck with the wet it out theory. Sometimes it works.. sometime it doesn't. I give it relatively low odds given the grain on this one but you could try it (it might also cause the board to split, maybe 30-40% odds on that). Basically you're trying to get some moisture into the shrunk side while drying the not-shrunk side. But wood tends to shrink radially as it dries so you're piece is kind of the perfect example of that unfortunately.

The other thing you could try would be to boil it and clamp it very (VERY) slightly concave the opposite direction to dry. Boiling wood takes some of the ligen and plasticizes it which removes some of the tension and reduces long term movement. The downside is that it also boils out a lot of the color that I think you want in that piece.. so that may be less attractive for that reason. This is a technique used with some success by a lot of turners to reduce warping (less to remove warping though). The general plan is vigorous fully covered boil for 1 hour per inch of thickness, air dry. If you clamp it make sure you rig it up so there is good airflow on both sides otherwise it won't dry properly and it'll possibly be worse than it was.
 
I've had mixed luck with the wet it out theory. Sometimes it works.. sometime it doesn't. I give it relatively low odds given the grain on this one but you could try it (it might also cause the board to split, maybe 30-40% odds on that). Basically you're trying to get some moisture into the shrunk side while drying the not-shrunk side. But wood tends to shrink radially as it dries so you're piece is kind of the perfect example of that unfortunately.

The other thing you could try would be to boil it and clamp it very (VERY) slightly concave the opposite direction to dry. Boiling wood takes some of the ligen and plasticizes it which removes some of the tension and reduces long term movement. The downside is that it also boils out a lot of the color that I think you want in that piece.. so that may be less attractive for that reason. This is a technique used with some success by a lot of turners to reduce warping (less to remove warping though). The general plan is vigorous fully covered boil for 1 hour per inch of thickness, air dry. If you clamp it make sure you rig it up so there is good airflow on both sides otherwise it won't dry properly and it'll possibly be worse than it was.
I see... That is so unfortunate!! The board is bigger than my stove actually, even if you can't tell from the picture. I wish I had used a moisture meter ahead of time. So it's set that I'm buying one and start using it on everything. I can't sell a piece that looks like that so I'm gonna try to flatten it trying out a variety of ways and see what happens. If nothing works I'm gonna have to make another one with wood that is completely dry.

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Even really dry wood with the center of the log positioned in it that way is unfortunately likely to move over time. Picking appropriate pieces of wood with good grain alignment is a lot of the trick for stuff like this (and different species have different amounts of movement as well).
 
dale i have done wet the board trick more than once but on flatter grain than you have thats your number one problem. if i had it i would try to cut on bandsaw and follow the grain line perhaps to salvage your project. but that wont be easy to get back together with the board flat..
 
The sad news is that the board is cut to near the pith and it will never stay flat more than likley it will crack. Sorry for the news but it is how we learn. Look at the end of this board and study it so on the next project you will know what to watch out for.
The Pith we are talking about is where the grain is making a half circle you don't want any of that in a board you want to be flat or not split
 
The sad news is that the board is cut to near the pith and it will never stay flat more than likley it will crack. Sorry for the news but it is how we learn. Look at the end of this board and study it so on the next project you will know what to watch out for.
The Pith we are talking about is where the grain is making a half circle you don't want any of that in a board you want to be flat or not split
That's a good advice, thank you!

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no workable solution---my experience has taught me not to waste effort on warp other than cutting--jointing--and regluing
 
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