Grain directions vs look in panels?

Maybe the material has sapwood on one side and heartwood on another?

Depending on what you are building, I’d be surprised if thre 4” boards would cup that much. but it may also dpend on how close to quarter sawn the material is. If the grain is close to quartersawn, no need to worry either way.

I’m not that experienced with this stuff, so I’m sure you’ll get better advice, but I figured I’d throw mine out there.

You hit the nail on the head, on why not to alternate boards. There a lot of woodworkers out there that say you must alternate your boards, and just as many that say you don’t need to. If a board is going to move it’s going to move. I myself go for looks over alternating boards.

-- http://theinquisitivewoodworker.com/

I would think this could makea big difference on a table top or something, but smaller projects may not have the room to have a pronounced effect.

there is actually a good point as to why NOT to alternate boards – think about it – if you don’t alternate the boards – all the boards will theoretically want to cup in the same direction – so if you fasten them in the opposite direction – you’re contradicting that cupping ability (to a certain degree) AND you get a pleasing-to-the-eye glued-up board.

on the opposite – if you alternate boards – you’ll have half of the boards trying to cup in one direction while the other half is cupping in the other direction – and you have no way to force them all to straighten up.

this is all in theory, and sometimes depending on the wood- the boards might not even cup to begin with – most definitely with smaller projects.

-- My Drinking Club has a Woodworking Problem...

just as many sources say you don’t have to alternate as ones that do… sometimes you need to go for stability (tabletops) , sometimes you keep shuffling around the boards until you get a panel you like the look of. (which is why we have breadboard ends, or floating panels inside cabinet door fronts – to hold everything flat.

perhaps one side of the boards was exposed to light more so than the other – in time the different faces should even out… maybe sand both sides to see how they look all nice and clean?

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Hey KnickKnack,

Welcome, to the forum, it full of amongst the coolest and talented people I’ve ever run across.

I’m a bit confused by the question. I kinda understand the jist of it, but still am confused. I’ve laid many a floor and most of my stuff is done with excess from job materials also. The T and G has been removed, everything square, so far so good. This is where I am confused. When you say panels so you mean a solid sheet of material that are made of three sections joined together? If that is the case the run on the face on one board of the grain should be not be flipped, but cartwheeled. Same side L-R, R-L. When you said creaking, concerning movement, hopefully this material is not planned for a floor install and is planned to be used for stuff like furniture or a box. The T&g flooring in my area usually has a rough and “corrugation” along its length. I doubt this has been much help, but I can’t “see” your situation. Could you post a pic., could be a big help.

-- Ciao, gth.

Guess it was a bit incomprehensible.
So, I’ve signed up to photobucket, and here’s the pic (I hope)...

Fig 1 – the bit of wood that I’m going to chop into 3 and glue into a single panel.
So, I guess the questions are…
1) If there were NO grain pattern at all (virtual wood), what would be the ideal format for gluing the 3 bits into a single panel?
2) The grain actually is like fig 2 (face up) and fig 3 (face down), so it won’t look right to have face up, and face down pieces on the same side of, say, the table top, so what’s the ideal configuration there? Personal taste excluded, keeping all pieces face up, which is best/strongest of…
a) A to B2, B1 to C1, C1 to D (slide)
b) A to C1, B1 to B2, B1 to C2 (rotate)

think about it this way – if the wood is going to cup – it will cup! there’s no way around that in this situation. the question that you need to answer for yourself is this: would you prefer the wood pieces to cup and form 3 “facing up” C’s but have the grain look RIGHT, or would you rather it cup and form an “S” and have the grain all mismatched…?

I’d go with option 1. and especially if you have shorter pieces – cupping will be so minimal (if any at all) that it would be practically invisible in most cases.

-- My Drinking Club has a Woodworking Problem...