Panels warped after resawing

[Steve Sawyer]

I'm working on a pair of oak frame & panel doors for our front hall. I resawed the QS boards for the panels, and got some pretty serious warp in the process. The panels that are about 30" long have a warp of about 3/32" at the center, and the panels that are about 40" long are warped by about 5/16" at the center.

At this point they are rough-sawn and range from 7/16" to 1/2" in thickness. My intent was to run them through the thickness planer to bring them down to 3/8", but if I plane them flat then thickness plane them I'll be lucky to end up with a good piece of veneer!!.

I'm thinking that because they're going to fit into grooves in some pretty stout (1 3/8" thick) stiles which should hold them flat once assembled, that the warp won't be much of an issue if I can get them planed smoothly and get them assembled.

It would seem that if I can get them flat long enough to plane them to a uniform thickness I should be okay.

What do you think of clamping them with the concave surfaces facing together with some dampened paper toweling between them? The concave surface might absorb enough moisture to relieve some of the stress and get them straight enough to run through the planer.

What do you think? Has anyone else run into this issue, and if so, how did you work around it?

Thanks.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Steve,
This is an unfortunate reality with resawing and some boards react worse than others. I suggest stickering them and clamping them flat (allowing the air to circulate). Often times, they will return after a day or two. Personally, I always allow resawed boards to acclimate for a few days before I finish milling them.

Lastly, I never cut the grooves until I know what I’ll actually be getting out of the boards.

[Steve Sawyer]

Steve,
This is an unfortunate reality with resawing and some boards react worse than others. I suggest stickering them and clamping them flat (allowing the air to circulate). Often times, they will return after a day or two. Personally, I always allow resawed boards to acclimate for a few days before I finish milling them.

Lastly, I never cut the grooves until I know what I’ll actually be getting out of the boards.

Thanks, Phillip - yah - I haven't cut the grooves yet, for just the reason you state. The boards may have warped just a scrunch more since I cut them (3 days ago) so they should be stable at this point. These boards exhausted the supply I had of QSWO in this width, but a friend may have some shorts that would give me a second crack at it. I may run these through the planer first though to see how they come out. As I mentioned, I'm less concerned with the warp which should be corrected in assembly, than I am with how well they can be thickness planed. If they don't react well to being milled in this state, I may try another set of boards to see if I have any better luck.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Steve,
I'd just jump in, mill'em through the planer, and see what happens. I see you have 30" and 40" panels. With any luck, the panels will be pressed flat(ish) when you stick them in their grooves. I had some nasty birdseye maple that really gave me a hard time (11" wide)... but they looked great after I made the doors and side panels. Maybe I got lucky!

[Jamie Buxton]

One recovery path is to turn the wood into veneer. Resaw it thinner, and glue it to plywood. The veneer probably won't be uniform thickness at that point, but can be planed flat.

[Steve Sawyer]

I'd just jump in, mill'em through the planer, and see what happens.

I did that today. They cleaned up pretty good except for one where the little blemish turned into a hole <grrr...>

And yeah - I'm thinking that they're long enough that some gentle persuasion should allow me to get 'em in the grooves.