Repairing a warped checkerboard

[Kelly E Jones]

A year ago, I built my son a checkerboard for Christmas. After gluing up the strips/squares, which were 1/4" thick cherry and maple, I glued it down to a chunk of 3/8" plywood for stability, and edged it with tiger maple. Total size is about 16" square.

A couple weeks after bringing it into the house, it started to warp (concave up), as the maple/cherry dried. (D'oh! I don't usually have this problem, due to the damp winters here).

Anyway, I'd like to fix the warp. I'm thinking I'll take a router to the back side and eat away all the plywood inside of the edging, down to the hardwood. I'll cut another piece of plywood to size, and after allowing the backing and surface to acclimate inside for awhile, glue them back up.

Any problems with this approach?

Kelly

[kwoodhands]

Remove maple edging first.Take a piece of 3/4" mdf or hardwood plywood and screw from the underside into 3/8 plywood. .Predrill and countersink holes into mdf or plywood.You must countersink EACH side of new base.If you do not do this, the screw will push dust up between

3/4" & 3/8" base and will leave a slight space .The counter sink leaves a space for the dust to collect without getting between boards. Next ,clamp the new base to the old and screw with 1 1/4" flat head screws. You only need screws around perimeter, about 2 or 3" apart. If you ever make another board, cut veneers about 3/32" thick.Tape together on face side, this will be the rough side of veneer. Smooth side should be glue side.Tape tightly together in both directions.I use 1" masking tape, veneer tape would be better. Best way to glue the veneer is with hot hide glue.You do not need expensive electric glue pot. Use a small electric crockpot, even new ones are only $10.00 or so. Follow manufacturers directions on mixing granuals with water. I put a glass jar or plastic container in water bath in crockpot.Then add glue to container. This saves cleaning pot itself. Apply glue to mdf with brush or squegee. Make sure glue is spread evenly.Do not hurry, get glue spread evenly and let cool.Position veneer on mdf, tape two corners to hold in place. Heat with heat gun,roll with laminate roller from center out, in both directions.Wait several hours or next day and remove tape. Sand or scrape to remove saw scratches. Keep an eye out that you do not make the surface dished. I usually scrape with a card scraper, then sand with 180 grit ,220 and 320 grit.Apply finish, play checkers with your son next day. mike