twisted bent warped wood

[xrongor]

i was just knocking a little 24"x42"hobby workbench together today, flimsy, light, just something out of scraps. 2x2 legs and 1x3 rails on top, and 6' from the ground. all pine. all the wood i used was very twisted. not just bowed, but twisted. and bowed. and cupped. and probably more. and already in my shop with nothing else really to do with it which is why i used it.

i had some melamine laminated particle board for the top, and thats nice and flat.

so off i went, screw gun and glue in hand to make something square. seemed like every time i tried to force it straight it just got uglier and uglier. straightening one place just bent it someplace else. so i just went with it. i built it in place on the top where the wood wanted to go. i kept the legs fairly plumb and the top flat, which was my goal. and its totally functional.... but the rails are just ugly... if you look from the bottom they form more of a parallellagram with a twist... oh well, put a fake board on the front thats square. only i know the difference.

ok, now for my question.

how can you take some twisted wood, make 4 legs and rails and have it come out square like a box even with some elaborate clamping system? is it really even possible? in this case was i probably correct to just build it crooked since its not exactly a show piece?

randy

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sometimes the line between practicality and pride gets pretty thin. Ed

[Mike G]

come out square like a box even with some elaborate clamping system?

By truing the stock. You know, planes, jointers. saws, squares, that kind of thing.

[xrongor]

how do you true up a piece of 1/2" thick wood that has a 1" twist in it? i.e. if you set one side 'flat', the other side is sticking 1" up. there is no 'plane' to plane to...

the only way i see to true the stock would be to soak it, park my car on it, and wait a month...

randy

[Stephen M]

I was a woodworker, then I built and addition on my house. I learned a significant difference between woodworking and framing.

With woodworking, you true-up stock and then assemble. When stick framing a house, You start with the straight-er pieces to start the frame of a wall. and twist and coerce the rest into place.

The worst stuff is returned, burned, or cut into shorter members (cripple studs and headers, sills)

It also helps to use it as soon as the bands are popped of the pallet so that the stuff does not have a chance to dry and start warping. (seriously)

Ask a bunch of woodworkers and you will get the woodworker's solution to the problem.

It sounds like the stuck with which you are starting may not even be good enough for framing.

You can "unwarp" wood by warping it in the other direction with the application of moisture and drying, (sort-of) but it's probably not worth the cost of a decent 2x4

-s

[xrongor]

this was just too small. every time i twisted something into place, it tweaked the other side, and visa versa. with a house, you have a few big heavy things to nail to. if nothing else gravity will keep things in place.

the stuff was on its way to the burn pile

(seriously)

ya thats the fundamental problem. i thought about it a bit today and in retrospect, considering what i started with, its really not that bad. it looked worse yesterday

sounds so far like everyone is saying the same thing. twisted wood = twisted box.

randy

[Mike G]

Well there you go, problem solved.