Made a frame and panel blanket chest as a wedding present. It came out very nicely, hard maple rails and stiles and top, ambrosia maple panels, aromatic cedar bottom. Finished with ragged on Waterlox Original.
Problem is that I waited until now (just completing the finishing on the top) to look into the whole shrinkage issue.
Wood is probably in the 12% range now, but it will be moving to New England, where winters are dry. According to Hoadley, NE winters will gring the wood into the 6% range, giving me about 1/2″ of shrinkage.
The top is breadboarded, glued in the center, so I guess I will have as much as 1/4″ of the breadboard protruding at each end. Not pretty, but it’s too late to worry about that now.
The real problem is the lock. Fully mortised into the chest side with the strike plate mortised into the top. If the hinge to lock distance is going to change by 1/2″, the lock won’t work and the top won’t close.
The only solution I can think of is to get a piece of brass and make another, wider, strike plate.
Does anyone have any better ideas?
Thanks
Replies
Sort of off subject but I would think you have (or should have) humidity added in the house from your heating system...
To dry is not good for wood AND you! I would think that you would want a humidifier in winters like that.. Chicago here and can get dry as a bone one day and water drippin' the next...
With added humidity I would not think your project will change that (1/2) much..
TX,
If the lock's top doesn't have big enough holes for the keepers to move 1/2" inside the mechanism, I don't see how a wider plate will help you. :(
Perhaps you could fasten the strike plate in such a fashion that it can stay in its proper relationship to the lock as the chest lid moves. Screws thru slotted holes in the strike plate, for instance. Or a sliding dovetailed wooden plate on the underside of the lid to which the plate is fastened.
The old fashioned grab or crab locks had enough slack in the opening at the top of the lock to accomodate movement. Modern day chest locks do not, unfortunately.
Regards,
Ray
The lock I have is (c).
I thought If I double the width of the strike plate (with double sized openings), I might get enough room.
The sliding dovetail idea is nice, but beyond my skills.
The slotted screw holes in the strike plate would require the mortise the plate rests in be oversized too, with the plate sliding in the mortise. Did I understand that correctly?
The chest was built in Central TX, and is going to Boston. Humidity here is pretty constant, not so much in Boston.
View ImageI guess I could remake the top, but it would be the 2nd time....
TXJon,
I live in Boston, my family room ash (flatsawn) coffee table (23" wide)with breadboard ends moves about 1/4"....we are not air conditioned and use forced hot water heat. In the winter it gets so dry the seams show on the turned legs I made for the table...in the summer, no seams. I made this in the summer..Edited 6/18/2005 3:25 pm ET by BG
Edited 6/18/2005 3:27 pm ET by BG
Well that is good to hear. The all knowing shrinkulator, using Hoadley's humidity #s, says your table should be shrinking .4". Maybe this thing won't be so bad after all....
TSJon,
I think the reality is that while it does get humid up here, it's only for a few day up to a week...a few times a summer. We average about 12 days a year in the 90's and 5 above 95 degrees. With finishes slowing the moisture uptake that is hardley long enough to make a significant impact...on average..lol PS. I used Waterlox on the coffee table too
Edited 6/18/2005 4:57 pm ET by BG
You're looking at the wrong end! It's always pretty humid here. I'm worried about how dry it gets up there in frozen yankee land. Don't tell anybody, but I am originally from MA.
According to the squiggly lines on the chart in Hoadley's oeuvre, EMC here (central TX) goes from 12% in Jan to 13% in July.
Actually, with the AC running non stop here during the summer, it's probably drier now than it will be in the winter, when we can have the windows open.
central TX! I lived there! Fort Hood!
Only place on Earth you can stand in mud up to your knees AND have dust blow in your eyes!
Thanks to all for the advice.
I wish I could convince myself to not worry about it, as a couple people have suggested, but I just can't make myself believe there won't be a problem. The heating season in Boston, if I remember correctly, runs Sept-June or so. That's a whole lot of dry.
I ordered some 1" wide brass and I will make a new strike plate with great big holes!
I'm not really worried about the breadboard ends not staying flush. Maple was the requested material, and it's gonna do what it does.
The heating season in Boston..
Did ya get you and the little lady a fire place??? Ya forget all about it...
While it is true that winters here in New England can be dry, a constant 6% isnt. Usually, when I look at my humidity gage in the winter, with forced hot air heat too, the humidity is in the 20% range. Most often more but seldom less. I have made atable with bread board ends and the bread boards will stick out about 1/8 on each side at the max on a table 44" wide made of antique pine, 250 years old.
Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
According to a chart in Hoadley's book, January EMC for solid wood furniture in the Boston are is 6%, July EMC about 12%.
According to the Shrinkulator, this will make a 22" hard maple top shrink .49". Shrinkulator says your table (if made of white pine) will shrink .6" over the same moisture changes.
If I put relative humidity #s into the shrinkulator, guessing at 70% in summer, and using your 20% for winter, I get even worse news, .71" of shrinkulation!
This is not looking good! I'd hate to have this thing pull itself apart, maybe I should just keep it here in TX, where wood is better behaved.
Tell you what. Why dont you ship it to me and Ill watch it for you for 5 years or so. If it gets destroyed, oh well...you learned something.
Dont believe everything you read.........or hear on the evening news.
My table was made of white pine but then again there is a difference between white pine today and what it was 250 years ago. That shrink in the winter with wood heat and forced hot air, the two worse heating systems for dehumidification, is right........... no more than 1/8". Today the humidity is a sweltering 74%............I am considering a move to Newfoundland! ............but it has been raining for 3 days too. Maybe ill stick it out
Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
Edited 6/18/2005 6:18 pm ET by CHERRYJOHN
TX,
I think you are going overboard, as a result of taking all those figures too seriously: and I'm not knocking Bruce's book-in fact just the opposite.
You say it is "probably" at 12% now and then you expect it to reach about 6% at the new place. It is not a big change and neither is it going to happen in an instant-how long are their winters? What, in fact, are the conditions in the house? It is not as if the conditions are going from one extreme to another in a short space of time. I cannot see a top of this sort of width moving by a half inch-sure there will be a definite step at one stage, but nothing like a quarter inch.
I think you should relax, and you could explain in theory what the worst case scenario may be to the recipients. Give it a season at minimum, and if the results are not acceptable, then you could replace the top with a frame and loose panel one.
As for the lock-again it may not be as bad as you expect. Surely there is some flex in the side? Granted , the lock type is sensitive to mis-alignment-minimise this by making sure that there are no sharp edges and file a good lead in .
mook,
Hard maple moves a LOT. I have seen 18" wide solid ends on a maple desk move 1/4"+from summer to winter here in VA. Every year.
Merely installing the lock as supplied will just about guarantee a call from the new owner sometime in mid winter. "The lock is broken, I cant get the key to turn." Because the lid of the chest has shrunk and put the lock and its strike plate in a bind. Don't ask how I know this... Alright, I'll tell ya. It was on a cellaret that was about 14" deep. Walnut. I thought it wouldn't move that much either.
Regards,
Ray
I just had to check if it was Heidi Klum that posted this.
Damn...
Joiner,
I did not think very well on that one. He did say that it was too late to do anything about the top itself , so my suggestion was not relevant-even now to point out that the outer two boards only should have been glued would not help.
I think the idea of a wider brass keep plate would work fine.
Perhaps he could vee groove the ends where the steps will happen, to hide them a bit, making it look as though it was meant to be like that.
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