Sealing and Wood Movement

[Jim Grant]

I recently glued up some strips of blackwood to make raised panels for doors on a sideboard. They seemed OK for a couple of days then did a very good impression of bananas. When I started, the moisture content of the timber was about 12% and there was no appreciable change in the weather afterwards. The strips were laid with alternating grain patterns but that didn't stop them twisting.
Had I applied a sealant such as Danish Oil as soon as the glue had dried would this have minimised any movement?
I look at these panels every day I am in the workshop and they seem to have a life of their own and form diferent shapes at will.

[mongrell]

jim at 12% id say its still too high for black wood ive never had much luck with just plain air dried wood and kd it down to 8 or 9% just to be on the safe side . sealing strait away will help but wont solve the problem .better to be safe than sorry

[Notsquare]

Hi Jim,

Sounds like a case for wood csi, seriously, can you tell us a bit more history about the wood. For example had you just bought it, and then machined it? If you have the wood for a couple of months either in a dry warm shed, or stored inside where the furniture will go beforehand then this sort of thing might not happen. Sometimes timber relieves itself if you have rip wide boards into thinner ones. This is why it is best to do this before you machine them. As an aside, it is very difficult to source well dried timber from some operators. Blackwood seems a real bugger for this. As the previous post said, if you cannot guarantee that blackwood didn;t go through a kiln then you will have problems latter on. Anymore info?

[Jim Grant]

Hi Guys,
I bought a cubic metre of blackwood from a company in Tassie some nine months ago and it was advertised as being kiln dried. However, when I received it I doubt that it had seen the inside of a kiln as some of it was soaking wet! I also had some issues with the quality of the product. I had to stack it in my workshop on a rack to let it dry out before any of it could be used. I may have to make up a solar kiln in the back yard to get the moisture content down but the workshop is dry and warm, in fact sometimes it is too warm.
Any ideas would be appreciated.