I have just made a coffee table. The top is 1.5m x 0.55m, consisting of three 1" pine boards glued edge-to-edge. I added some cross-brasing underneath (glued + screwed).
The top is not fixed to the frame. It is designed so that it can be lifted off.
Soon after assembly, the top has started to twist. Is there any remedy for this? I am trying to correct the twist by laying the top on the floor with a heavy weight on one end, and at the other end: a spacer under the low corner and a weight on the high corner. That has reversed the twist. But how long should I leave it with the weights in place, and will it have any lasting effect?
I personally do not think all this stuff about laying it in the sun, weight etc will work the comment about finishing both sides is though, it allows equal absobtion of moisture .
My suggestion is to remove the x grain battans and put one diagonally that is slightly convex so that it will pull the opposite corners down . It will be a trial and error effort regarding how much covexisity [?] is needed ,keep trying clamp the ends each time until the twist is gone then remove the clamps and use screws to attach the end of the batten to the top ....mjh
I had a twisted pine board. The humity in my garage went from like 0% to
190% in a day. I brought it inside my house where the humity was normal and I flattened it out with weights. It worked.
My understanding is that you need to finish wood on all sides. That doesnt mean stain and stuff but at least seal with poly or whatever the finish is. This makes it so water vapor is absorbed equally. I also believe that boards expand lenghwise more than width wise so maybe your supports played a role in the twist?
The top is about 5ft x 2ft.when you lay in on a flat surface, with one end weighted down, one of the far corners will rise off the ground about 1" It's enough to be noticeable and irritating.
Greg - thanks for the suggestions. I'm not sure if I can face tthat much effort though. If all else fails, I may just make a fresh top using seasoned timber..
Always a bummer when this happens. The weights will likely have little to no effect. It can help sometimes when you get cupping across a gue up that is do to tension at the joints but once the wood moves it is very hard to undo it.
One possible "fix" is to bread board the ends, if you can live with the look. This is how I would do it, following some of the rules to allow for movement.
First create one big tenon across each end of the glue up. You might have to make some strong feather borads or otherwise fanagle the glue up through the router or table saw to rabbit it top and bottom.
Then trim the one big tenon to be one tenon on each board with about an inch between each tenon.
Then, using a very flat board, 2-3" wide, make an end piece with a single mortise all the way across stopping 1/2" from the end.
Flatten the glueup with weight or whatever and bang the new end piece onto the tenons. Clamp it, drill it at the center of each board for a peg. Knock it off and using a rattail file, slot the holes in the tenons across the grain. Be careful not to oversize then in the other direction or the new end board can pull away from the shoulder and leave a gap.
Use yellow glue when you put it back together for good. It will stretch enough during movement.
Finally (this won't help this time) I have been learning that glueups are a lot more stable when I mill from rough stock myself. Also, Pine is probably one of the worst for movement (that I have worked with). They gorw and harvest this stuff so fast now it migght sprout leaves if you spill water on it.
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