How to select wood that won't warp

[capnharv2]

I've done some work on my Connie's mainmast, and I've decided to start over on it. It's warped. The dowel was cut too short, and I scarphed a section on to get it the correct length, but there's still about 1/8" warp in the 12" section. When I put the masts in, I can see the misalignment (the other 2 masts are straight). So I think I will start on a new one. Crackers put up a great video on how to turn dowels from straight stock, so I will want to try that.

 

I have 3-4-5 pieces (about 36-48" long) of 1"x 2" poplar that I was given about 10-15 years ago, and I'd like to turn the mast/dowel out of this. Are there some hints on how to select a piece of wood that won't warp after I cut and turn it?

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey

[Geoff Matson]

Harvey I know what you mean.

 

I made all my masts out of poplar. I bought some billets from Menards and cut them down to square demensions and then rounded them out. I gave up trying to find good straight dowels and decided to make my won. Used the drill and sand paper and then finished by hand. So far all is well.

[kurtvd19]

Harvey:

Make up an oversize laminated piece from two or more strips and knock off the corners of the square piece and then round it off.  A laminated piece will resist warping as long as you glue it up straight.  Best to use a straight grained wood like Poplar like Geoff used.  A single piece of wood can always warp over time where a laminated piece will not.

 

Kurt

[russ]

I have used Western alder to make spars, ripping my square stock and then rounding over the pieces. Alder is a good straight grained wood. I have not had any pieces warp on me yet. This covers 10 years in the open air of the house so far.

 

Russ

[capnharv2]

Thanks for your help guys. I'm going to glue a couple of pieces of poplar together and mill the mast out of that. The wood looks pretty straight, and it's been around for 10-15 years, so I suspect it's stable.

 

I'll post some pictures of how it turns out.

 

Thanks again,

 

Harvey

[capnharv2]

Okay, story time. . .

I took my old piece of 1"x2" finished poplar and ripped it down the middle on my saw. Before I did that, I

checked to see if the original had any warp in it-it did not. It's also straight grained and clear of knots (a

nice looking piece of wood). I glued and clamped the finished edge together using Titebond type 2 glue and let

it sit overnight. The piece was still straight.

This morning I ripped it down to 1/2"x 1/2", and turned the corners off with the router. I then made up a tool

per the Matthias Wandel video that was posted elsewhere here.

 

My finished dowel size is 7/16", so my power drills did not work (they only go to 3/8"). So I ended up using a

brace bit to turn the dowel (it worked much better than I thought).

 

The finished dowel looked really nice-until I took a picture of it on the table saw (to contrast the color to

see it better.

Sure enough, it's warped. It's about 1/16" over 18" length. It's warped right in the middle, so I can't cut it

out. I checked the glue line for signs of separation-I had a hard time finding the glue line, but it's solid

the entire length of the dowel. By the way, the glue line is down the center of the dowel.

 

I think it's better than the one I have now, and I can line the warp up fore and aft so it's less noticeable.

Still, what did I do wrong? Or am I being too anal?

On the plus side, the Matthias Wandel dowel turning setup is pretty neat and leaves a nice finish. And the thickness is constant (my wife wanted me to turn in on a lathe, but I doubt I would have gotten as good an end result)

Okay, whining done-pass the cheese, please.

Thanks,

Harvey

[lamarvalley]

Warped wood is the pits but there is a method for TRYING to eliminate the possibility of warping. In another lifetime I made furniture... nice furniture and one method, actually the only method for gluing panels for cabinet sides or for tabletops was to alternate the grain. When the grain is all facing in the same direction the wood will naturally cup so to eliminate that as best as possible the individual boards are alternated with respect to grain.

I have never made anything with this method as delicate as a 7/16" mast but i have done my fair share of table legs and the like and this was always the way we glued up.

The artwork, although not graphically spectacular, should help illustrate what I'm talking about.

[jud]

Agree with Randy. Might add that you are working with a dowel, long and narrow. Use the same wood in your lamination's so all will have the same characteristics for stretch, shrink  and changes in moisture. If you were making ply board then thou could mix and match.

jud

[capnharv2]

Randy, Jud,

 

Thanks for your comments. When I ripped the piece in half and glued it back to back, I thought I was reversing the grain on one piece. (like the 2 center layers you show). That's why I don't understand why it's warped.

 

It's possible that, when I used the recently sawn sides as the outsides of the piece, that they were not flat enough, and I clamped the warp in when I glued it. The sawn sides looked flat, although I could see some saw marks on the faces (the blade is brand new, and I didn't see any burn marks). I didn't surface the outside faces-maybe I should have. . .

 

Harvey

[robnbill]

I know i am coming late to the party, but when you perform a fresh cut on wood, even if it has already been stable, it can start warping again since new wood is exposed to moisture. The lamination techniques discussed above certainly work well on furniture size wood and theoretically on mailer model sizes, however, since the warping is due to the wood taking in moisture through the grain's pores, the manner these react on such a small scale may prove to be different than in normal furniture size pieces. If you think of wood as being made up of tiny straws, the straws remain the same size as you work on smaller and smaller pieces, but the ratio of the size of the straw to the finished piece grows enormously. So the impact of added moisture can also grow.