Using Wide Boards

[jlanciani]

They'll cup. Even quarter and riftsawn will cup.  You orient them so the end grain is 'smiling' and will cup down to the table aprons if you're talking about tabletops.  Rather a mushroom than a the Chinese pagoda look, if you get my drift.  Nothing looks worse to my eye than a table that looks like it would take off and fly in a strong wind.

Its 2021 for lord's sake, central heating and cooling with humidity control exists. My dining room table is 36" wide made from 3 red maple boards of all things and it is as flat as the day the boards came off of the jointer. If you can't wrap your mind around around working with wide stock please just leave it in the rack for those of us that can; ripping wide stock down "to prevent cupping and warping" is just ignorant.

[oakey]

The only time I have ripped a wide board is to get it through my 15 inch planer
I have used a friends planer and planed 24 inch boards and built furniture with them so far even stuff I built 50 years back is as flat as it was the day I built it
I .w.as not aware it was suppose to cup or warp I guess the boards did not know either
I cut a huge cherry tree 20 or so years back it squared up over 48 inches 48 inch boards are to hard to handle so we riped them right on the sawmill
Half of the furniture in my house came from that tree

[jteneyck]

If you are in a production environment where you machine to final dimensions and go to joinery, then movement may be an issue. For a hobbyist, where for example a board may be taken to final thickness in stages over a period of days/weeks, then I don't think this will necessarily be an issue. I will typically machine wide boards in stages: maybe 3 or 4 stages, after each stage letting the board move the way it wants to move over a period of days.  As you approach the final dimension, the movement should be minimal. I could be wrong on this, but this is what I have observed.

You and many others do this but it's only beneficial if the wood you are using is not at equilibrium with your shop.  But if the wood is at the equilibrium moisture content of your shop then it will be stable when you mill it and won't warp afterwards.  Look at production shops.  Many of them mill in batches, put them on carts, and don't use them for a day or two.  They couldn't do that if the parts warped.  

Buy wood that's been dried properly, bring it into your shop long enough for it to come to equilibrium, and then use it w/o worry.  Works for me.  

John

[Philip1231]

My shop, wood storage area, and home are all temp and humidity controlled year round, and I have enough inventory to allow wood to rest (acclimate) for a year or more before I work it. Under those conditions, any movement I see is probably not due to EMC issues. Internal stresses (e.g., growth stress, drying stress, probably other forms I am unaware of) can cause movement independent of moisture content. So even under the best conditions in terms of wood storage and acclimation, wood can a will move: depending on how lucky you are

[John Mihich]

Seeing that I only have a 12" planner that's the widest board I will use.  I do have a drum sander but I use that for after the glue ups.  I quit worrying about flipping boards based on end grain, I just worry about how the grin looks on top.  The only table I have had problems with was one that I didn't make - it's an early 20th century farm table where the grain goes side to side instead length wise; there's one board that likes to cup a couple times a year.  One day I may replace that board - next time I refinish it probably.

[EdL]

Have an 18" wide glue-up to do. You can see the 3 boards have stress. Thinking a 3 piece glue-up at 6 1/2" each as narrow boards are going to take off on me.
This will be a 6' long breakfast bar, thickness will be whatever it cleans up at, guessing 7/8.
What say you?

Ed

   

[fredhargis]

I'd say you're good to go!

[EdL]

I rough ripped to 6 1/2", used the Festool ts55 as it has a riving knife.

Sure enough, 2 of the bowed side cuts closed up, had to stick an old chisel in to keep it open.


Ed

[Stwood_]

Yep. I keep a screwdriver and/or a door shim handy to shove in the kerf, laying on the right saw table.

[MKepke]

My experience with wide boards is they are beautiful and should be used.
Special handling and techniques required, but nothing exception: let the wood reach equilibrium, use appropriate joinery.

But I can understand why a production (volume) joiner would not want to alter his production techniques to accommodate them. His business model is probably producing set pieces at pre-agreed prices. He may not get another dollar for using wide boards but he will get a callback/chargeback if the top warps.

In his shoes I’d be inclined to set the special boards aside for special projects, but with a truckload of oak arriving regularly one probably runs out of space pretty quickly...

-Mark