Advice on bowed door.

[Tom Pritchard]

Hi everyone!

I am currently working on an aquarium stand for my son, and I have run into a little problem. I glued up a panel for the door that is 16" wide x 22" long. It is comprised of 4-4" wide X 3/4" thick figured maple boards (see picture). When I finished gluing it up, it is slightly bowed so that it sits lower in the middle than it does at either edge (the 16" width is bowed, not the 22" length). As I see it, I have a few choices:

1) Put a crossbrace across the back on the top and bottom to force it straight.

2) Clamp it to a flat surface for a few days and see if it goes flat.

3) Chuck it in the scrap bin, cry a little, and start a new one!

I hate to loose the panel, but I also hate to have the door never look right when closed. Will a couple maple braces on the back of the door look bad? What do you think? Thanks in advance for your help!

[John Lucas]

Whew, that is a hard one. First question I have is the bow do to moisture and individual panel warping or was your joining 1 degree off. If the latter, any forcing to be true will be impossible. If true, only thing would to plane the panel down to where it is acceptably flat.
If joining was not at fault, you might try to straighten but I doubt you will have much success. Only thing would be to plane down to flat.
Do you get the idea that no matter what the cause, the solution is to make flat. Plane is a good start and then sand. Good luck. It may sound awful but I have a feeling when you are done it will be spectacular.

[John D. Thompson]

Hi everyone!

I am currently working on an aquarium stand for my son, and I have run into a little problem. I glued up a panel for the door that is 16" wide x 22" long. It is comprised of 4-4" wide X 3/4" thick figured maple boards (see picture). When I finished gluing it up, it is slightly bowed so that it sits lower in the middle than it does at either edge (the 16" width is bowed, not the 22" length). As I see it, I have a few choices:

1) Put a crossbrace across the back on the top and bottom to force it straight.

2) Clamp it to a flat surface for a few days and see if it goes flat.

3) Chuck it in the scrap bin, cry a little, and start a new one!

I hate to loose the panel, but I also hate to have the door never look right when closed. Will a couple maple braces on the back of the door look bad? What do you think? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Tom,

First: Did you have your jointer set up dead-square when you edged those boards? If not I'd say that you're pretty much stuck with ripping the thing apart on the glue-joints, re-jointing and gluing up again because, in my experience, it is almost impossible to 'stretch' the wood permanently if it was dried/cured to begin with. If you do this you will have to add a little to make up for the lost width. Maybe a strip of Walnut down the middle as a 'design element'? It should go without saying that during re-gluing it will be a challenge to keep the ends flush so you don't lose any length. Try making up only one joint at a time.

Second: If the panel glued up flat and cupped before you could finish it. DON'T FINISH IT until you have tried the clamp-it-flat-and-see-what-happens routine. I would try to place about a 3/16" shim under the center and bow that thing the other way for about 24 hrs. If you leave it in clamps for long enough, it WILL change shape. If you reach the end of your patience and want to go to the last ditch, you might try moistening the concave side of that panel a little at a time while it is under clamps. This is a chancy gamble at best but, it will almost certainly have an effect. The trouble is controlling that effect.

Third: Breadboards?

Best of luck to you.

JT