Twist

[GOVOLS]

Gluing up a large heavy hickory farm table. This top is made up of 1 1/2 thick hickory. After joining and planing my wood a week or so ago one of my boards has a slight twist. I've got the other 5 boards glued up and all I like is this one. Can I pull out the twist as I glue it ? I know I can physically but will it put stress to where it might split some day ?

Thanks

[Superglide]

Twist sux. It will send you to a asylum trying to straighten. Which at the end of the day will most likely not work.

[Ken Vick]

Were you planning to put it on the outside? Because you said the other 4 boards are glued up, I suspect you were going to use on the outside. If the twist is not so bad that you can't flatten it with a batten when you do the glue up and you can bury the board in the middle, I have had good luck glueing them in. It won't work so well on the outside. The outside edge of that board will still twist after the glue up which will make the outside edge of the top to be in a different plane than the rest of the top. Ken

[GOVOLS]

I thought about burying it in the middle but I figured that would the worst place if an issue occurred. By putting on outside if I had a issue after glue up I could rip out.

[Steve N]

Twilight Zone for an answer here. All I can say is if I have stock with twist I joint, and plane it to a thickness where it no longer does. If after doing that, the piece no longer fits in my plan, then I use a non twisted piece, and make something else out of the now thinner piece.

Because of how the wood dries you can get into a situation where as you take the board down (remove outer layers, and expose what had been covered), it will open up new wet areas, and it can move more. It's a crapshoot at best.

[fredhargis]

Steve N said:

---

It's a crapshoot at best.

---

^^^^^that right there. It might work, and it might not. So it depends on how much a gambler you are if you want to use that wood.