Flattening bowed wood

[Josh Doran]

Hey all,
So I have some narrow scraps of 1" oak I need to flatten before gluing them to wider boards. They came flattened from the dealer but have developed a bow along their length. The problem is when I go to plane them, the weight of the handplane flattens them out which prevents me from removing the bow. What's a good way to deal with this? My thought is to shim material between the hollow and the bench (hump facing up). Would this work or is it not accurate enough?

Thanks,
Josh

[Robert Engel]

Depending on how much bow, how wide the scraps are and how long the boards are, you may not need to do anything because the wider boards will hold them straight. If you can easily push the bow out, I would do a test clamp and see if they have any affect at all on the boards they will be glued to.

If it is an issue, then your shimming technique would a viable way to address the issue.

[george wilson]

I agree with the above. Oak is not the most stable wood. In fact,I have a 19th. C. Carpentry book that says "Never guarantee an oak door".

[John T Barker]

Wet cupped side and expose the other to sunlight. I'd watch it though.

[Jim Davis]

Clamp it flat and use a heat gun on the convex side. Move slooooowly and get the wood temperature just high enough to be uncomfortable to the touch, then move a little and continue.

[Ray Bohn]

I agree with the above. Oak is not the most stable wood. In fact,I have a 19th. C. Carpentry book that says "Never guarantee an oak door".

Does this hold true for QS oak?

[Pat Barry]

I assume that the wider boards are pretty much bigger than these strips. In that case I would just glue them down and get on with things because the larger boards will keep things correct. Now if you are putting down a whole lot of these strips in parallel (side by side) it might cause some problems in which case you could flip every other piece to balance things out.

[Josh Doran]

Thanks for the help. The wood is QS oak btw. I tried dry clamping it to the larger boards but didn't like the stress created by flattening the bow. So back to the plane. I used a bit of scrap leather and folded paper to shim the middle. Got them flat enough to glue. The only reason I was gluing them to larger boards is because I ordered a bundle of QS oak online but it only gave me a range of possible widths. I didn't want to pay extra to specify lengths. Lesson learned. All the boards that arrived were about 1/2" short of the width I needed for my project. The project is an anarchist tool chest and the wood is for the till bottoms. The last bit before painting! I just nailed one ship- lapped bottom. 2 to go.

[Al Launier]

To "flatten" warp boards such as you have described, with minimum stock removal, I would recommend a planer sled that is adjustable to allow holding the warped board in a secure position while planing the top surface. This will average out the amount of material to remove better than the results of a jointer. Then flip the board to plane the second side parallel.
A planer sled is an interesting project to make & will last a lifetime for future use, particularly for boards larger than the capacity of a jointer.. Glen Bradley made one that you can reference from one of his previous threads. I also made one that appears here. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...led&highlight=

[lowell holmes]

Rip the bowed board down the middle and using dowels or dominoes, glue the halves back together with the bows opposite each other.

It will work, but probably done with power tools.