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+-- Thread: Have you ever been defeated by wood movement? (/showthread.php?tid=7373878)
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RE: Have you ever been defeated by wood movement? - FS7 - 09-15-2023
(09-14-2023, 07:27 PM)jteneyck Wrote: If you built the breadboard ends the same width as the field you were in for disappointment from the beginning, because anytime the moisture content changes the field will either be wider or narrower. Narrower is OK, but wider will expose the end grain of the field, not pretty. So I always make the ends wider than the maximum width I expect for the field at the highest moisture content I expect it will experience.I tend to overthink things. What I *try* to do is guesstimate where it's at presently (in my shop, and the season) and where it will be in the end location. The goal is to have the field fluctuate perfectly between narrower and wider than the end. This works like a charm upstairs in my own house and has actually worked very well for the walnut table I did for my brother. Now I didn't think that was a masterpiece, and I don't even have any pictures as it had to be disassembled for transport, but he had a furniture refinisher look at it (his boys did a number on it) and he was very impressed by it, specifically including the breadboard ends. The people who bought their house (for some completely ridiculous amount that I can barely comprehend, as they live in Hoboken) actually loved the table so much that they asked for it to convey. It was somewhat purpose built for that space, so I get it. But there was no warp, and the expansion went both ways.
In any case, you have to plan for the outboard mortises to be wider on both sides of the tenon to account for the maximum expansion/contraction you expect the field will see. That will prevent the field from buckling or splitting. Of course, the way the top is attached to the base must allow for that same amount of expansion.
The mismatch you now see in the width of the panel compared to the breadboard end is to be expected. And 1/32" warp is pretty much nothing. It's solid wood, and wood moves. If you want to make a breadboard end tabletop that looks perfect year-round, you need to use veneered plywood/MDF for the field.
John
It isn't very bad. I am just a perfectionist and it drives me nuts. What is worse is that even though it's just a mile up the road (exact same climate) they said it basically expanded within a month, and has not changed. Winter or summer, it's got that little lip in the one corner from expansion of the field. It's bothered me enough that I probably won't do many breadboard ends in the future. I don't particularly care about the appearance of end grain. My bar has a good 18" of end grain exposed, and my desk top is almost 36" of it.
RE: Have you ever been defeated by wood movement? - Ridgeway - 09-16-2023
(09-14-2023, 02:46 PM)EightFingers Wrote: Moving from Kansas City to Hawaii. ALL my drawers got tight.
Probably too much poi.
RE: Have you ever been defeated by wood movement? - Bill Holt - 09-17-2023
(09-16-2023, 07:10 PM)Ridgeway Wrote: Probably too much poi.
Good one!
RE: Have you ever been defeated by wood movement? - ianab - 09-18-2023
Defeated? No. But it's a real thing, and I've seen it in action.
Wife's current computer is my old "Desk PC". Imagine the desktop is a 3ft x 24" piece of live edge cypress, with a piece of glass recessed in it, and the actual computer parts sit on a tray below the glass. The wood was well dried for several years, but the warmth from the computer parts dried it a bit more, and the glass insert no longer fitted into the rebate. No problem as it just took some careful chisel trimming to remove ~1/16" of wood, and the desk is now on it's 3rd iteration of PC hardware, and has some "gamer led" action going on under the glass.
But the movement once installed was real, just minor and easily solved.
RE: Have you ever been defeated by wood movement? - EightFingers - 09-20-2023
(09-16-2023, 07:10 PM)Ridgeway Wrote: Probably too much poi.
