Question about lacewood.

[Lutarious]

I'm building a lacewood top on a small nav station for a client, and I am concerned about the warpage of the material when I get it to the boat. Following the suggestion from a friend, I am planning to rip the material down to manageable widths, then spline or Biscuit joint them together for the finished product. The boards are quite dry, and in my garage right now. I am going to take them to the boat to let them adjust before I do the job, so myy question to you is, should I rip it down to smaller widths before I take the rather dry material to the boat, or should I store the full planks on the boat for a while, then rip them down before I begin work?

[David G]

Normally I'd say no... but it depends.

What's the moisture content currently? How was it dried, and for how long? How much extra material do you have to work with? How flat is the stock now, and will you have enough thickness to flatten a face, then bring the whole slab to final thickness?

Splines and biscuits gain you little or nothing. In a marine environment... they're just one more joint that offers an opportunity for moisture intrusion.

[Bruce Hooke]

I agree with David. Simply cutting the board into strips and then gluing those strips back together will do nothing whatsoever to prevent warping. If you rip into strips and then flip OVER (make the back the front) every other strip that could well help but it seems rather a shame to do that when you are dealing with something like lacewood where that will make each glue joint likely to pretty visible because of the grain pattern.

From what I have heard, almost all imported hardwood is kiln dried to relatively low moisture levels (suitable for indoor furniture). So, since the wood is likely drier than it will be on the boat, I would try to leave the full plank (or as much of it as you will use) on the boat for a few weeks if you can, ideally somewhere near the nav station (if the nav station is in a deck house that gets a lot of sun the humidity levels there could be quite different than somewhere down deep in the cabin).

How big an area are we talking about (how big is the top of the nav station) and how solid a structure do you have to attach the top to? Do you have a way to allow the top to expand and contract so it does not crack?

[Paul Scheuer]

Would there be any wisdom in stikkering or otherwise holding the lumber flat while it is being re-moisturized ?

[David G]

Would there be any wisdom in stikkering or otherwise holding the lumber flat while it is being re-moisturized ?

What stickering does is to allow lumber to stabilize by shedding/taking on moisture in a more even manner. It can have some effect on keeping the pieces in a stickered pile from warping... but that has more to do with an even transition than it does with 'holding' the sticks flat. A stick of lumber is mostly gonna do whatever it's gonna do, in terms of movement.

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

My drawing-boards were made of (widish) slats screwed together with metal battens on the underside. The centre board was screwed on tight, but all the others had screws mounted in slotted holes so that they could move a bit as necessary. While I agree with Bruce's solution as a very sensible first approach, if that or other solutions don't work might this be an option for you?

Mike

[Bruce Hooke]

Again, I'll second what David said. Stickering, when you have lots of weight on top and are taking wood all the way from green to dry, can help keep boards flat. In your case I wouldn't bother trying to weight the board. Just make sure it is reasonably well supported, can get reasonably even air flow around all sides and also try to avoid having it in a place where one side will get lots of sun and the other side none. If your board warps a good bit just aclimitizing to the moisture level on boat, which I think is very unlikely, I'd see it as a sign that it is not the right board for the project. If you should happen to find that it has warped, first flip it over and leave it for a day or so in case it was just a matter of one side getting more sun or more dampness than the other. It is amazing how much a board can warp temporarily. Try leaving a board lying on the damp grass on a sunny lawn for a few hours!

I also agree with Mike's idea. Whether you use metal cleats or a wooden frame or cleats, something that tries to hold the top flat while allowing it to expand and contract would do much towards keeping the top flat. If you go the metal route, you'd need a couple of pieces of angle or u-channel. Flat bar stock would not do the trick. You could also use wooden cleats, again with holes that allow the screws to slide. If you want to get fancy you could use a sliding dovetail to hold the cleats to the top.

[Lutarious]

Thanks for the thoughs, everyone. The table top in question is not exposed to direct sunlight, although it may get a splash though the companionway once in a while. It is relatively small, 28x16 inches and well supported on four edges. I am going to take the board down to the boat for the next couple of weeks, lay it down flat somewhere on stickers and see what happens. Hopefully, my overly dried lacewood will acclimatize well, and I can make up the cabinet.

[David G]

G'luck!