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03-20-2022, 11:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-20-2022, 11:17 AM by mound.)
So as part of my kitchen build I've got ~30 drawers to make in various sizes. Weeks ago I re-sawed all the maple and broke things down roughly, stacked/stickered it.. Maple definitely likes to move! I have a bit more flattening/squaring to do now for the final breakdown to the 1/2" thickness. Some of the wider ones are going to need me to rip/square/re-glue given how they moved.
So roughly 120 individual parts to deal with. In the interest of continued "batched operations" for the kitchen build that I've been having success with so far, I want to do the 2nd/final round of milling on all the maple drawer side blanks - bring them to final thickness and width and cut the grooves in all of them. Everything but cutting them to final length.
The concern then is how to store these parts without them moving, if not ready to assemble the box in the near term.
I won't actually dimension and build a given drawer box until the carcass for it is in place, but I want to have all those batched operations already done. I was thinking that for each box, after this final milling, I'd stack the 4 parts together flat and just wrap them completely with cellophane and set them aside until I'm ready to build each box.. The hope being that no moisture change should mean they'll stay flat. Then I'd unwrap a batch right as I'm ready to dovetail and assemble it.
Thoughts?
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I think most of what you are doing is just fine. The only thing that makes me nervous is the cellophane. I would be fearful that wrapping the cut pieces will trap any moisture that needs to get out possibly causing problems later. I think you should just stack everything as you suggest with perhaps some weight on top, but let the air circulate. That way, if any pieces are going to warp, they will be allowed to do so and you can either repair or replace them. Good luck.
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I agree with Willyou. I would dense stack them with a piece of plywood the same size on top.
John
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03-20-2022, 12:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-20-2022, 12:31 PM by mound.)
(03-20-2022, 12:22 PM)jteneyck Wrote: I agree with Willyou. I would dense stack them with a piece of plywood the same size on top.
John
dense stack meaning not stickered? airflow only at the end grains? I suppose that would accomplish the same thing
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(03-20-2022, 12:31 PM)mound Wrote: dense stack meaning not stickered? airflow only at the end grains? I suppose that would accomplish the same thing
Correct, no stickers.
John
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Educate me. Why no stickers? Just because they are not needed? Or, another reason? I would think that the stickers and air circulation would be a good thing.
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I built my kitchen cabinets over 4 years ago using hard maple for the drawers & face frames on the cabinets. I didn't fret over the pre cutting and waiting for them to be in perfect usable status.
I don't have any problems with movement, etc.
I wouldn't wrap cut pieces in shrink wrap, etc. Like previously mentioned, that'll only hold the moisture in the wood.
FWIW
Jim
Jim
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I will nay-say the anti-plastic wrap crowd. I've done it and it was fine.
However when I do this using something like this ( https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pratt-Retail.../202029371) I DO NOT COVER THE ENDS OF THE BOARDS. I just use it to tightly strap pieces together in a stack. Most of the moisture moves out and in from the endgrain so that remains uncovered.
I've done this with cherry, poplar, walnut and yellow pine but not maple. Most recently with a stack of yellow pine parts for making Shaker Candle Boxes (ala Ejner Handberg's drawings from his book). In fact, I was even lazy and left a few sets of parts so wrapped in the trunk of my car for several days last week as our local temperatures swung 35F overnight to 65F during the day and one day that was rainy and 40F-ish. No problems. Yellow pine is relatively stable but still I was pushing my luck. Most parts were 1/2" but a few are <3/8" as I'm trying to show some people at the KCWG shop how to cut stop-dados by hand for interior dividers. The thin stuff is also fine.
If I don't have the stretch wrap to hand, I've done it with a generous wrap of blue tape too. That or course leaves a lot more wood exposed but as I said, it is the endgrain where most of the action occurs.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. -- G. Carlin
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(03-21-2022, 09:39 AM)Willyou Wrote: Educate me. Why no stickers? Just because they are not needed? Or, another reason? I would think that the stickers and air circulation would be a good thing.
Because the OP already waited for them to stabilize and then rejointed and planed them to final thickness. At that point, you want to minimize moisture exchange and keep the parts flat until you can build them into a drawer. Putting stickers between them accomplishes neither. Wrapping them completely in plastic is fine as long as the parts aren't at some extremely high MC, but there's no need IMO, plus the OP said he had allowed them to stabilize so the MC should be very close to the EMC of his shop. At that point, dense stacking them with a cover on top is easy and effective.
John
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(03-20-2022, 11:16 AM)mound Wrote: So as part of my kitchen build I've got ~30 drawers to make in various sizes. Weeks ago I re-sawed all the maple and broke things down roughly, stacked/stickered it.. Maple definitely likes to move! I have a bit more flattening/squaring to do now for the final breakdown to the 1/2" thickness. Some of the wider ones are going to need me to rip/square/re-glue given how they moved.
So roughly 120 individual parts to deal with. In the interest of continued "batched operations" for the kitchen build that I've been having success with so far, I want to do the 2nd/final round of milling on all the maple drawer side blanks - bring them to final thickness and width and cut the grooves in all of them. Everything but cutting them to final length.
The concern then is how to store these parts without them moving, if not ready to assemble the box in the near term.
I won't actually dimension and build a given drawer box until the carcass for it is in place, but I want to have all those batched operations already done. I was thinking that for each box, after this final milling, I'd stack the 4 parts together flat and just wrap them completely with cellophane and set them aside until I'm ready to build each box.. The hope being that no moisture change should mean they'll stay flat. Then I'd unwrap a batch right as I'm ready to dovetail and assemble it.
Thoughts?
I just finished a pantry cabinet with 5 pull out draws. After I cut them to rough size I put 2 coats of Arm R Seal. When I was ready I cut my half blind dovetails on all of them (front & back) and then cut all the grooves for the bottom. I put a final coat after assembly. No issues so far. Plus, glue cleanup was a breeze since I had the 2 coats of Arm R Seal on.
My $.02.
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