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Cupped Cherry Boards

Posted by bernie_l (My Page) on
Mon, Apr 2, 07 at 11:30

I have 4 inch by 3/4 inch by 22 inch cherry boards edge glued together. These boards were stickered and air dried for 3 years before being glued. After I planned and edge joined them they cupped after about 3 months. I had them laying flat with weight on them.
Why did this happen and is there anything I can do to correct this problem?

Thanks for any help.


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RE: Cupped Cherry Boards

There are a lot of variables that could be involved.

Where were they air dried, and where have they since you glued them together? If they were air-dried outdoors, in an unheated shed or garage, or in a damp basement then they would still have had a fairly high moisture content, regardless of how long they'd been sitting around.

When you had them "laying flat with weight on them," were they laying on a table or other flat surface so that only the top surface was exposed to air? This would cause moisture changes to be more extreme on one side than the other, which would cause cupping.

Were the pieces flat-sawn, quarter-sawn, rift sawn? Some cuts are more stable than others. Were they glued up with the orientations of the annual rings alternating or all facing the same direction?

The most conservative thing you can do is prop up the piece so that air can circulate over both sides, and leave it for several weeks. If that doesn't fix the problem to your satisfaction, you're left with cutting it up, re-flattening and re-assembling it.


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