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Notes -
Why are those boards so shit, anyway? I was having trouble with a (very simple) project I worked on for my wife, and had to call in my dad for help when nothing was squaring up. He pointed out that my boards were warped, so there was nothing to do except go back and take more care with what wood I purchased. I just would not have expected that any somewhat reputable store would sell product which is of such poor quality.
As I understand it, warping is almost unavoidable. There is a lot you can do to minimize it though, but it's storage and labor intensive. So Home Depot doesn't waste it's time. Because Home Depot is not a store for fine woodworking. It's a store for construction. And framing 2x4's can be a bit wanged or knotted or whatever.
Even in my workshop, several of the pieces I cut began to warp. Some more than others. Because my shop isn't climate controlled. Even so, You can weight down the boards on a flat surface and it'll help prevent warping. You can also wait to mill it down to final dimensions until right before you do the final assembly. In fact, the slower you mill it, taking off a little at a time and letting the wood move, the less it will warp at the final dimensions. But it'll nearly always warp some with enough time, and temperature/humidity changes.
Rift sawn wood is also less likely to warp, but that comes at a premium as well. It's basically a way of sawing the wood that is less efficient, more labor intensive, but which keeps the grain from curving through the board.
I may be wrong about some or all of this though.
Interesting. I don't really do woodworking at all, so this is all stuff totally new to me lol. Thanks for the insight!
I know a guy who is a really, really good with everything related to metal, and he hates woodworking, because wood is a tree slice and is always, always anisotropic.
I love woodworking and I hate people who make the furniture panels I can buy at the nearest DIY store. They don't care about the orientation of individual boards, which makes their edges impossible to plane 50% of the times I hit a finger joint.
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