Moisture in lumber

Noel,

Ideally, you would like to have your lumber between 6%-8% moisture content. I have actually gotten away with lumber being in the 11% range. With 1/2” gaps in the back of your cabinet, the wood you used must of been very, very wet. 1/2” movement is a bunch. Also, when making your doors, did you leave enough room for the wood to move or did you join everything tight? Need to leave room for expansion and contraction. In my opinion, one of the best tools you can have in your shop is a moisture meter. They are relatively inexpensive and can save you a lot of heartache as you are learning. They are also nice to have because you can monitor wood and see how fast or slow things really dry.

Sorry to hear about your warped project.

-- Jeff, Indiana

This also happened to me, we built childs size tablr and chairs using pine, we got a dry spell before they got finish, the seat on one chair got a crack the length about 1/16” wide and the top of the table warped,
the crack was in the wood not where we glued up the seat.
Last week we got rain lots of it, the table went back to almost flat and the chair you cannot see where the crack was! We also made chop boards that were alive, just kept flipping them until the quit warping finished them and no problem yet.
I’m hoping after we finish that will seal the wood. maybe should be praying!
Sorry I haven’t an answer , just thought I’d let you know your not alone

-- MARK IN BOB, So. CAL

Even sealing the wood will not stop movement. It will slow it down but the bottom line is that wood moves. Wood will change very little in length but it will have considerable movement along its width.

Here is a site that gives a brief explanation and includes a formula for calculating wood movement:
www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/shrinkage.htm

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

The last thing I read said lumber for building furniture should be below 12% or it is too wet.

I wonder if the gaps will show when the humidity rises again? Out in California, the winters are more humid (because of rain) than the summers. We have very dry air in this part of the state, so summer is when the shrinkage would show most here. As I understand, in the Midwest and East coast, summer is more humid and the wood swells then.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Thanks Guys. I know what my next purchase will be now. I just bought a load of lumber from Menards last week and I’m sure it is wet. I also have purchased used dry lumber and that should be ok but I will start measuring. My doors are primitive in style so they are tall ad only held together with 2 to 4 boards screwed and glued. Thanks again for wisdom, Noel.

-- Noel, Iowa www.primitivefurnituresales.com