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Stopping bowing..


WolfmoonCT

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Hello all.. I was wondering if anyone could help me here.. I buy all my lumber as rough lumber. I resaw it, then glue it... What I've seen, especially with the cherry, I have, is bowing of the wood after being gluded up. What I do is resaw it, then glue it as a bookmatch. It should alternate the growth rings. So I was doing a work piece.. I needed a 12 inch board, so I glued up 3 pieces that were 4.5 inches wide. I had a very slight maybe 1/32" bow when I cut it.. not much.. I finished it, and glued it to the 1/8" birch backer piece.. I then sealed the back of the birch ply.. What I ened up with was a piece that when you measured in the middle, had a 1/8" bow across a 12" board... The ply had a slight bow, but not that much.. and I figured 1/8" ply would flatten out with the cherry.. Am I wrong on this? Here is a pic of the piece..

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Hmmm....that's a tricky one. I haven't done much glueups/resawing, so I can't be certain. My understanding is there will always be some bowing when resawing. The resawing releases the stress in the wood and you'll have some wood movement. If the wood isn't acclimated to your environment, that will make a difference too (too dry or too wet). I'd try resawing a bit thicker than you need, let it dry for a week or two, then joint/plane/glue the boards. I'd give that a try and see if it fixes it at all.

 

The problem with mixing plywood and solid wood is the amount of wood movement. Plywood is very stable and won't move much. But solid wood will move a fair amount, depending on humidity. I'm guessing the solid wood is stronger and it's muscling the plywood into that shape. You could go with thicker ply to see if the stability of the plywood will match the strength of the wood movement.

 

These are only guesses. No warranties implied. ;)

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The wood has been in the shop since about February.. I glued up another piece, and got about 1/32 inch bow across it. I've left it alone for now, to see if it's going to increase or not. I also am going to try 1/4" ply instead of 1/8".. see if it helps or not. Even the 1/4" I have has about a 1/32" bow in it too.. we'll have to see what happens. I didn't seal the back of the cherry on that last one.. maybe because only the top and sides are sealed with Poly, it's getting more moisture on the back and that is why it's bowing that way.. Cause when I cut it, it had about a 1/32 bow. and the bow was down on the cut. but it has totally changed direction now.. I was just not sure how good the cut would hold to the backer if the back of the cut piece was sealed with poly.

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