Take us out of warp, Scotty!

[mdutch]

Are there any good online guides on how to avoid timber warping as it's ripped?

[u]Notes</u>: All my wood is stored flat on sticks inside my garage prior to and after ripping. Garage is Dallas, TX so tends to be warm and not damp. Stock is true when I start, and dimensionally correct when finished, it's just got bowing, usually visible when I finish the cut, and often worse a few days after.

I'm working with some aromatic eastern red cedar 4x4s and stacked them for a month before touching them. I cut one down to a 2 x 3 and it's got a 1" bow over 6' run. It's heartwood and this specific piece has the true heart close to one face. Have similar problems with some very dry spruce 1x12s that I ripped into some 1x2s, though they look ******* sawn. Could have made a nice keel with some of those pieces.

Q: Am I just chasing wood that's too wet?
Q: How can I gauge the interior moisture of timber? Is there a guideline for weight/bdft or something?
Q: Once a piece has a bow in it, can you clamp it to a straightedge and "true it" by ripping down the grain and cutting the bow out of it? Or are you screwed and just save it for boat-building?

[LCHIEN]

I'm not really sure about this. But seeing as how no one answered,
you might try waiting a few days and see if the moisture equalizes and the board sraightens out some. That would happen if the outside of the original were dry but the inside still more damp. Yeah, I know, its already been two days...

Basically your Q#3 is the same as jointing it... if its changing due to differential moisture as i suggested above, then you wouldn't want to joint it too soon or it would warp back the other way as it dried...

[Otter]

there are a number of factors that effect how wood moves after cutting.

Moisture:
1. if the wood is over 12% it is too wet to work with. Generaly, it is said, 1" per year will dry wood to around 10% if it was fresh cut.

2. There are referances for moisture, but a meter is around 60 bucks and work well.

Stress:
1. wood can do very funny things when it is not dry and you cut it.
by cutting a fork, ou can guage the way the wood is going to act.

here are some links I used to learn a little about drying wood

http://www.mtc.com.my/publication/li.../contents.html

http://timber.ce.wsu.edu/Supplements...re%20page2.htm

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fp...tr113/ch03.pdf

[mdutch]

Thanks guys, I went to http://www.inthewoodshop.org and read that hobbyist's treatise on 4-square milling. (He's **** good, and has a great piece on sharpening without going broke )

I realized with my aromatic cedar beam that I was fighting the pith. In a previous saw-event I had cut slabs from two faces of the beam, but had failed to realize leaving the pith core along one corner would torque the whole beam into a bow. So last night, I slabbed the remainder of the beam into five 3/8" planks and watched in amusement as the bow increased in the first "pith" plank and relaxed considerably in the last three boards. They're now flat on their face, and the bow is now a "hook" which I can fix when I rip their width.

Learning about the structure of wood is a new level for me. I appreciate the tips and links!