9 Out Of 10 Panels Stay Flat

After planing the panels to thickness I cut them all to their finished size. I stickered them and set them aside for a few days to do some other work. Well, in the interim, one of the panels developed a cup, worse at one end.

The worst end. Cupped by almost 1/8".

The other end is cupped less than a sixteenth of an inch. There also is some wind.

Dang! I hate when that happens. The reason wood cups is because the cupped (concave) side has dried quicker or more than the convex side. When resawing lumber one hopes that the wood will behave but sometimes this is not the case. You are always taking a chance.

The "good" end I could deal with but the "bad" end is a problem. If it doesn't come back on it's own I'll have to do something. My choices are:

1)Flatten and thickness plane again, resulting in an under thickness piece.

2) Clamp it flat while cutting the tongue and hope the cupping doesn't cause a problem when installed.

3) Flatten it by dampening the concave side making the fibers on that side swell, then quickly cut the tongues and hope the cupping doesn't cause a problem when installed.

4) make a new panel.

Having one undersize panel is not a workable option and I would not want to thickness plane all the panels since this would either have to be done all on one side, allowing for more possible winding and cupping, or, if planed from both sides it would seriously affect my bookmatches. The two choices that involve hope, while tempting, are not attractive to me, although with a beefier frame? well, I think not. If necessary therefore, I will make a new panel.

I have set the panels aside for a while longer to see if anything changes, then I will have to deal with that cupping. I have decided to wait a bit to cut the tongues on the panels. I'll start milling the walnut to final dimensions while I see how that panel does.

Book Matched Panels-Flattening

Since edge gluing, the panels have been stickered. They mostly stayed flat, but a few had cupped one way or the other.

Here is my set up for planing:

I am using wedges to hold the panels in place while I plane them. This is a very effective method of securing work. I use the ruler as a straightedge to see if the panel is flat. I then have a good idea of where to remove wood.

I am pushing the plane straight across the panel but holding it skewed. This helps make it easier to start the cut and to carry it through. This maple is figured so it is extremely difficult to get a smooth surface without using a hand plane and scrapers. As you can see below, this is full body exercise. It always impresses me to think of the life of a woodworker two or three hundred years ago and how much hard work it took just to make a smooth board.

I went over all the panels with hand planes to flatten them, checking with a straightedge periodically to see when I was done. This took about 5 minutes per panel. The work goes pretty quick if you have your workspace well prepared. Now, with one flat side, I can run them through the planer (planing the back side) and bring them to final thickness.

Next, I'll finish milling the panels, then it's on to making the walnut frame. Thanks for taking a look. Check back and see how it is going.

Making Book Matched Panels-Glueing Up

Now I begin to glue the panels up. At this point I have dry clamped the pieces and have a set up for gluing ready. Not having all the clamps I want, I can only glue two panels at a time.

For these panels I am Using Titebond II since I want the glue to set quickly and there won't be a problem with the joint setting too soon. I spread glue evenly on both surfaces to be joined. Use enough to wet both surfaces. I am using a trimmed down acid brush here to spread the glue. You don't need a lot of squeeze out.

Make sure the correct faces are up and you are joining the correct edges. Match the grain as you want and then start clamping. I line the joint up with my fingers and begin applying clamp pressure. I try to apply pressure evenly by tightening each clamp a bit at a time. This helps keep the pieces from sliding around. It can be difficult to keep the pieces in the same plane when clamping. Sometimes you need to use a block and mallet to even things up. I fuss with the clamps until I am happy. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get everything right. After I have the clamps tightened I set the assembly aside and start another. This is when you want more clamps, always more clamps.

After the minimum set time for the glue has passed you can take the clamps off and scrape any excess glue off. Next I'll be sizing and raising the panels and getting them ready for finish.

Making Book Matched Panels-Edge Joining

After being re-sawn and thickness planed, most of the panel material stayed flat but I did have a few pieces that bowed or twisted. I re jointed the miscreants and ran everything through the planer again to bring it all to the same thickness. Now it is ready to be jointed and glued up.

To prepare the edges for joining I gang each pair of boards up with the show sides facing each other and clamp them in a vise. That way, if the edges are not planed perfectly square they should conform to each others bevel in the book match configuration. I usually am able to make the edges very square with the face though. I use a small square to make the edges even and to see if the edges are out of square with the face.

I use 2 planes for this.A #4 1/2 Veritas smoothing plane and  an H.M.T. Gordon wooden smoothing plane. 

I start with the #4 1/2,

Check progress along the way,

And then a few passes with the Gordon plane to finish.

The Gordon plane is set for a very fine shaving and I use it for final smoothing after I have the edge nicely square. When I think I am done I check the fit by hand and then, if that looks good, with some clamp pressure. I don't want to force anything together. A small hollow in the middle of the joint is considered desirable, the theory being that the ends will shrink a bit more than the middle of a board due to the exposed end grain. This is probably more important with longer material but, if I have a slight gap (1/32" or less) in the center of an edge joint I don't worry about it as long as I can close it with hand pressure. On the other hand, if the joint is fat in the middle or if I have to apply a lot of pressure to close the joint then I need to make it fit better. 

Finally, I check across the joint for flatness while the boards are under a bit of clamp pressure. I want this perfectly flat. 

There are ten panels in this project so I repeat this 9 more times. It really goes pretty quick with material that has been properly machined. Next it's glue up.

Making Book Matched Panels

Book matching can produce some very striking results. The mirroring of the grain usually makes for some dynamic looking panels. Book matching lumber (as opposed to book matching sliced veneer) can be a bit tricky. You have to try to judge the pattern from the outside since you won't see it until you cut the piece open. You look at both sides and try to make an educated guess as to what may be going on in the interior of the piece. The more material you remove after the initial cut, the more the grain pattern can change. When you do finally make the cut for the book match, you get to see if your suppositions are correct. You can also run across defects in the wood that weren't visible from the outside, like cracks, knots and voids. Since commercial veneer is sliced there is no loss of material between slices and the match will be about as good as you can get.

To compensate for these inherent difficulties I try to use material where the grain is fairly straight through the thickness of the board. Extreme angles in the grain from top face to bottom face can result in a poor match. I also keep any thickness planing to a minimum on the faces I want to match. I leave the material a bit long and wide, just in case there is any movement in the wood after milling. Sometimes to achieve a good match the boards must be offset lengthwise a bit and the extra length is necessary.  Eventually I will size everything to exact size but I will not do that until I have glued the panels together.


With the lumber all approximately sized and planed I set up the bandsaw to re saw the panels.

First re saw,

then set aside the sized piece and joint the band sawn face of the other piece,

then back to the bandsaw for the second piece, and repeat. 

I could have milled everything down to the same thickness, then re sawn, but I wanted to keep the thin cuts that would be left over for future use.

Once the re sawing was done I then ran everything through the planer. 

Now it is all stickered and I will see if anything changes after being opened up.

Here are the panels for the front of the chest. It is a little hard to see the figure but if you click on the picture you can see it larger.

A closer shot of one of the panels

Next I'll be gluing the panels up, then sizing, fielding, and finishing them. Then I'll start on the framework.

Thanks for taking a look. I hope you check back again and see what I've been doing.

Blanket Chest Lumber

After another trip to the lumber store I now have all the material that I need for the blanket chest project. I have milled it all to approximate dimensions and have figured out where each piece will go. I will start producing the book-matched panels soon. I milled that material first since I knew I would pre-finish the panels prior to assembly.

Here is a shot of the material for the lid

And a shot of the walnut with a sample of the frame pieces in position

Today I sat down and worked out the details for the joinery. There is a bit of complexity where the legs and frame come together but I think I have the details pretty well nailed down now. 

In the meantime, I still need to make an astragal for the double doors so I will probably work on that for a while. By the way, I sure do like having the dust collector out of my shop. I gained a fair amount of floor space and it is quieter when only the dust collector is running. 

Til next time, thanks for taking a look.

Something Completely Different

While my lumber was resting after the first milling I helped a friend of mine with her house remodel project.  She had trusses coming last Thursday so I helped her frame walls and generally get ready for truss delivery.

It was fun to do this kind of work again but I sure couldn't do it 40 hours a week anymore!

We got the trusses set and no one got hurt. A very successful day all in all.

I'll be back working on the blanket chest and probably a few other things I should finish next week . I hope you check back and see how it's going.

Milling Lumber

Milling lumber from rough stock is an enjoyable endeavor to me. As each board is jointed I get a good look at the grain pattern and color. At this point I can make some critical judgements about the placement and use for each piece. I work hard to try to make the grain of the boards I use "work" harmoniously together, at least to my eye.

I begin milling by breaking the large pieces down into smaller sizes where possible. This makes the material easier to handle and also reduces the amount of stock removal for bowed and cupped pieces. I use a chop saw or skil saw to cut stock to length and the band saw to rip cut.

Now I flatten one face at the jointer. The jointer and planer I own (Powermatic 8" jointer PJ-882HH and 15" planer 15HH) both have Byrd helical cutterheads. These heads really work well in figured wood. I experienced almost no tearout in this maple and I know from running this type of stuff through a jointer and planer with straight knives that that is remarkable. The helical design also makes the machine quieter but I always wear hearing protection when running almost any tool.

Next I joint an edge square to the just flattened face, then the stock is ready to be thickness planed and ripped to width.

I started milling with the maple since I had a good idea of what I needed from each piece and I was eager to see the figure in the pieces I had bought. Here I have jointed one face flat.

And here I have jointed an edge at 90 degrees to the face and have planed the opposite face. The material is stickered and resting for a few days before final sizing and resawing. I'm pleased with the material and think it will make some gorgeous panels.

The walnut took a while to figure out what to cut where.  I am still mulling things over for this project and fear I may be short a bit on material. I had chosen some material to resaw for legs which was riff sawn, and I thought I had all the other parts figured out but I'm still making decisions.  Here is the rough stock waiting to be made into something.

Here is most of the stock milled into rough sizes.

 Here is an action shot of me resawing at the bandsaw...

and the produce of my effort.

The boards on the left must have had some inner tension because they both bowed to the outside in the middle when resawn. I was planning to use those for the top rails of the frame front and back but will have to see if they will still work. They may lose too much material when flattened. If so I will have to rethink my layout. At this point I have stickered everything and will let it set for a few days before I start final sizing and joinery. Well, that does it for now. I'll be back in a couple of days with more.