Just the other day I had one of my customers registering a complaint about 2 pedestal mount cabinets that I had built for him last September that he intended to display his African safari trophies. His complaints were that the tops had distorted and warped considerably.
He has the cabinets downstairs in his basement near the furnace. With the extremely harsh cold winter, no doubt the humidity level within his house is very low and would cause shrinkage. The 2 units were built out of kiln dried hard maple with the tops measuring 24″ x 32″ and 24″ x24″ (see attached photo). I have made others in the past that have not had this issue. The tops are glued up panels cut to an octagon shape. The panels are retained with biscuits and standard wood glue.
I suggested for him to place the units near a humid source, but not sure if the tops will recover to the normal shape.
Any suggestions how this can be corrected short of making new tops?
Thanks,
George
Edited 1/20/2009 11:39 am ET by jorge9156
Replies
J,
Thank you for your question. I will forward it to Gary Rogowski.
Sincerely,
Gerald La Starza
Fine Woodworking
Hi,
If the tops are glued on, then there are not many options. You could try to flatten them in place with a sander or hand plane. If you can get them off then you could flatten them on the jointer or planer and then refinish them.
With this size top, you may continue to run into this problem if you don't allow for wood movement. Instead of splitting or cracking the board, the top is warping because it wants to shrink. Since you glued the top on, it can't move. I would suggest gluing it along one edge only and having screws hold on the other sides of it. Run the screws through a table top fastener that clips to the inside of the case or
through a block of wood that has a tongue cut into it. The tongue then fits into a groove cut into the inside face of the case. This way the wood is fastened down securely but still is allowed to move with the seasons or moisture changes. Good luck.
Gary Rogowski
http://www.northwestwoodworking.com
Thanks Gary for your reply and input.
The tops are not glued to the base, instead they are merely held in place by some pins to retain, but allow for removal when needed. These pins could be restricting the movement as the wood expands / contracts with the environment.
As you can see from my attached photo, the octogon top is removable. There are 8 dowel pins around the perimeter of the base with the hole in the top.
What I did glue were the boards to make the top (3 boards to make the panel).
Thansks for the advice.
George.
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