Shaker Sideboard: I'm In Fine Woodworking!
Adam: Yes, its a single beautiful board and I'd hate to have to make it two pieces. At this point, the end grain is sealed. I have come up with an idea that I will experiment with tomorrow. Stay tuned. Phil


(10-03-2020, 08:28 PM)adamcherubini Wrote: Phillip, is that one wide piece of wood?

Finishing the underside really won’t help you. You need to seal up the end grain.  But if that’s one piece of wood, you may not stop that crack.

You may not choose this approach, but what I have done is rip boards like that in or very near the crack, match plane and spring the joint and glue it back together. I think spring joints work. But I may be wrong.
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Kevin: If I were certain that it would not get worse, I'd go with it. Its the uncertainty about how much worse it could get that has me wondering. I have not had much success with super glue, even when I used an activator: not sure why I could not get it too work. I have used a super thin super glue when working with corian: it gets sucked into the joint via capillary action. I really dont have a gap to speak of; just a hairline crack. Stay tuned: I have an idea. Phil

(10-03-2020, 09:10 PM)kwadams Wrote: Super glue and some sanding dust? We’re still on the humid side now (I know your shop is humidity controlled though) and heading into winter, so that’s my main concern on the cracks getting worse if you don’t stop them now. However, I’m with you in that stuff like this doesn’t bother me enough like it used to...my pieces have tons of character!

Kevin
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Cannot help with your decision aat all.

I know the right hand crack would worry me.

How worried might depend on how easy it is replace that board
Thanks,  Curt
-----------------
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
      -- Soren Kierkegaard
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It’s gonna keep cracking. Not forever. Putting something hard in the crack is a mistake. When the humidity rises, the material you put in the crack will create a wedge effect, deepening the crack.

In the museum world they mix up cocktails of Briwax and pigments to make that sort of stuff less noticeable. Briwax is a hard wax, but not compared to wood.

I know it’s really tempting to use a full section for a table top. I’ve had the most luck with boards sawn very close to the heart. Your top is a good few inches from the heart judging from that ring pattern. Boards shrink mostly along the rings so that center section will be looking to move.

Ripping and regluing is not a panacea. And bread board ends won’t stop that either. It’s the nature of wood we fight against. It’s a stock selection issue. I think springing joints helps. But I have no test results to back that up.

Just for grins, how is the top connected to the case? If it’s attached with screws, I’d yank out the back ones now. As they say, winter is coming.

Hey...this is fine woodworking as I define it. Nothing easy about building well, designing right, choosing stock that will work and function. This thread has it all. Every woodworker should be reading this.

Thank you Phillip for sharing this project with us. I understand (believe me) that’s it’s like giving a lecture naked or...no woodworker wants a room full of woodworkers watching and judging his or her every move. Thanks for sharing your work with us.
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Are you feeling lucky?: I have attempted a fix and I am moderately hopeful that it will work.  I applied moderate clamping pressure across the top on the end wit the split.  I made a cherry dowel, 3/16" dia using my dowel plate. I drilled a 3/16" hole coming in from the edge of the board and following the direction of the crack.  I applied a healthy amount of glue inside the the hole, and tapped in the dowel. As luck would have it, the dowel forced the glue up through the crack on top and through the crack on the bottom. It was enough squeeze out to give me confidence that not only is the dowel itself bridging the crack, but there is a glue bond in the crack above and below the dowel.  I was able to keep the top and bottom surfaces clean (already have the initial coat of finish on) and I expect I will have to do some minor cosmetic work on the end grain where I will flush cut the dowel.  I'd like to believe that a Shaker craftsman would come up with something like this: given their tendency toward thrift. Maybe not an elegant fix, but I think I will be OK with it.
   

Top squeeze-out of glue
   

Bottom squeeze-out of glue
   
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And a hundred years from now someone will be inspecting this piece and wonder what the significance was of the dowel in the end grain. The craftsman surely had some deep meaning in mind!

Really nice work, Phil, can’t wait to see it all together!

Kevin
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(10-04-2020, 09:18 AM)kwadams Wrote: And a hundred years from now someone will be inspecting this piece and wonder what the significance was of the dowel in the end grain. The craftsman surely had some deep meaning in mind!

Ha! Hopefully it will be as perplexing to them as a nib on a handsaw is to us!
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Yeah, doesn’t Garrett Hack use inlay to place a message in morse code? Well, you have the start of your message now!

Kevin
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I would have used a dutchman, that is, a scrap of end grain to inlay and match the surrounding wood. You can still do this. Even a round section from a plug cutter would help it disappear.

Regards from Perth

Derek
Articles on furniture building, shop made tools and tool reviews at www.inthewoodshop.com
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Well, here is what it looks like without finish. It definitely does not disappear, but if you squint you can almost imagine those occasional
pitch pockets that occur in cherry. With a half dozen coats of finish and some time to allow for darkening, it may not be horrible (a window into my new standards of quality
Wink ) The good news is I believe it is now structurally sound and the crack progression has been  halted.

   
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