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Un-Warpage!

4K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  DaleM 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I am new to woodworking. I have an idea for a small end table design and I thought I would make a test table out of pine to work out the design not to mention improve my skills as it will require techniques that I have not yet attempted. I purchased a couple pine boards today while waiting for my wife to get off work. I then made the mistake of letting them sit in the car while we went for dinner, shopping, etc. Needless to say by the time I made it home, they are warped. The problem here is that I have a very limited supply of tools. Granted, it would not cost hardly any money to re-purchase some square boards I would prefer not to. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can get these back square enough so that they will at least be worth using on a prototype?
 
#2 ·
try wetting the cupped face ,
maybe a towel to that side damp .
the side in the sun dried out faster and shrunk around the other side .
kind of like a dry sponge laid on some water ,
it gets bigger on the wet side ,
watch it this time , dont want it to curl the other way .
and get it made before it decides to keep on moving freely.
it sounds like you got construction lumber ,
you might have to get dryer wood ,
or just trust and go for it !
welcome to LJs .
 
#3 ·
I've had some success with clamping boards bowed or slightly warped boards by bending them in the opposite direction and letting them sit under pressure for a day or two. I will eyeball down the length of the board and try to find the exact center of the bend in the board, then place the board on my benchtop right along the edge with the bowed side of the wood highest side up, using scrap pieces of wood as spacers to hold the board above the workbench, then place the clamp directly over the center of the bend and clamp it down towards the benchtop, bowing it in the other direction. To fix a sharper bend in the board, I wet the wood around the bend with a very wet washcloth, then clamp it just slightly bent in the opposite direction and dry it with a hair dryer on high heat. It works something like steaming the wood I guess and will quickly take the bend out. Be careful and don't overclamp it in the opposite direction much at all or it will hold the bend in the other direction and you will have to start over. You can reshape the board any way you want, but it will take time. Correcting warp
 
#5 ·
Thanks guys. Just letting them set overnight under gravity in the other direction corrected part of the boards. I will try the moist towel method next. It was basic pine from Lowe's, so it was fairly moist and it was pretty hot yesterday in the car. If that does not work, on to the clamps I go!
 
#6 ·
James, after thinking about how my treated lumber that's outdoors curled one way in the sun after it got rained on, and all I had to do was flip it over to let the sun shine on the other side to straighten it, I was wondering if that might work for you since you mentioned it was the sun drying one side that caused the problem in the first place. It sounds like the moisture might be equalizing in your wood and taking care of the problem (along with gravity as you mentioned). I guess sometimes doing nothing or very little is the right thing. I wish that would work for the cheap plywood I have stored in my basement but after two years of doing nothing with it, it's still all warped bad as ever. I treated that once the way David mentioned above, by wetting the cupped side and it did straighten out some as the wood swelled, but then went right back when it dried. If I could come up with permanent fix for that, I think I would be rich.
 
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