Wood Movement on a Chess Board? – Viewer Question
This Viewer Question comes from Reggie who writes:
“Marc, first thanks for the wonderful website!!! Second, I am relatively new to woodworking and have a question about wood movement on a chess board I am building for my son. My choice of woods are 3/4″ hard maple with a very little curl, and walnut. My procedure so far was to face and edge joint, thickness plane, and saw 4 2″x 25″x 9/16″ sections of each wood. I then edge glued them to each other using Titebond II. Next was to cross cut the piece into 2 inch sections and flip every other section to give me the checkerboard pattern and re-glue. I have just finished hand planing one face perfectly flat. Now I want to edge/frame the board with mitered 3″ sections of walnut.”
“Now the problem. I currently live in Louisville, Ky but my son lives in Southern Louisiana. I know without a doubt that the climates are VERY different and I need to account for this, but how? He has taken to playing chess with his friends and I know that it would be very appreciated by him, so I don’t want to mess this up! The only advice I have been given is to glue the board I have made so far to some 1/4 inch plywood. Cut a slot in the mitered frame and let the board float in it. Would this work or do you have a better idea? Also, will Titebond II be good enough to hold the walnut through expansion when glued end grain to end grain on the corner miters (I don’t have a biscuit joiner and working for the military doesn’t allow me to afford one right now.) To sum up … HELP!!!!!!!!”
And my response was:
Hey Reggie. I am glad you emailed me BEFORE framing the board. I made a board almost exactly like this one. And I still have it today. I have it as an example of what NOT to do with your projects, lol. I didn’t know too much about wood movement at the time and surrounded the board with a frame anyway. Big mistake. I have posted a video that highlights my mistakes with this board.
Anyway, the idea about the plywood will work, but only if you glue the chess board to the ply at the center. If you glue the whole thing down, you aren’t allowing the wood to expand and contract. So a little glue at the center would be all you should do. Now this plywood trick is a slightly less elegant (but simpler) way to do what I would recommend. What I would do is cut a groove around the perimeter of the chess board. Cut a similar groove around the frame pieces. Then use strips of ply as splines that are cut just short enough to allow some movement all around the board (or at least the two sides that run with the grain). But the fit in terms of thickness of the strips and width of the groove is such that the board doesn’t wobble around. This will allow the chess board to move within the frame. Like I said, a different way of accomplishing the same thing that was recommended to you. But no big piece of ply involved.
And there aren’t many choices beyond that. One way or another, you need to allow the wood to move. And you could always get creative and suspend the board inside the frame using a dowel at each end, and cutting the holes a little extra deep to allow for movement. Kind of like the table top on my end table from a while back. But that completely changes the look. You could also cut your solid stock into veneer, and glue that down to a stable substrate as a method of eliminating wood movement. Something to consider. As for Titebond II, that should be strong enough assuming you have tight fitting joints and good pressure, and its a relatively light duty piece. Hope that helps and good luck!
Wood Movement – Question of the Week
This week’s question comes from Martin. Let’s see what he has to say: I’m a relative newcomer to woodworking and have been watching your podcasts for a month or so now and am finding them very interesting. One major point I have picked up on is how much attention needs to be paid to the way in which wood moves over time as this never really occurred to me before. I am currently working on my 2nd ever project which is a jewelry box which will hopefully be made out of a nice piece of cherry.
I have attached a couple images of what I’ve designed so far.
The problem I am stuck on is with regards to the top of the box. I have designed the box to have the top made out of two bits of cherry butted up against each other which will then sit in a rabbit around the top of the side pieces. From what I have seen online recently it looks like this could result in the top expanding and “popping” the dovetails out, or cracking the top piece. I’m pretty much at a loss as to how I could get around this and was wondering if you had any pointers.
And here was my response:
Hey Martin. I too was very surprised when I first learned that we have to account for wood movement. I remember thinking at the time, “Oh great! Something else to worry about!” lol. The interesting thing is there are always exceptions to the rules and there are nearly always workarounds. Depending on the size of this box, you may never really have a problem. Obviously the smaller it is, the less it will move. And with small jewelry boxes, you can usually break a lot of the movement rules. Now if this is a reasonably good size, you certainly might have issues, but then again, you might not. How much of a gambler are you? If you want to get a little more scientific about it, check out The Shrinkulator.
Now the safe thing to do would be to redesign the top a little. And by re-designing, you might turn this dilemma into a design opportunity. The most obvious option would be to make the top more like a frame and panel. So the two cherry pieces would be set into a groove that goes all the way around the inside perimeter of the lid. The panel would essentially float, and thus be allowed to move. But of course, this changes the look.
Now if you absolutely do not want a frame and panel look, then your only other “safe” option is plywood. You can fully surround a piece of ply in that situation and have no adverse effects. And based on this design, the ply edges would be completely concealed and no one would have any idea that it was a piece of plywood. In fact, that would be the way I would do it if I wanted to adhere to that specific design. Good luck!
Wood Talk Online – Episode 23
Welcome to Wood Talk Online Episode 23. As always, if you have a question or comment, you can email us at woodtalkonline@gmail.com or leave us a message at 623-242-2450. We had a few audio issues in this episode so please bear with us.
This week we are graced, once again, with the presence of Tom Iovino. Tom gives us the low down on his new dining room table he finished just in time for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Marc tells us all about his recent 3-day seminar in Oklahoma.
Our first email was from Steve who is looking for advice on selecting quality hand planes on a budget. Our second email is from Zac who brags about his new Lie Nielsen router plane. Our third email is from John who recommends a book called Architectural Graphic Standards, published by The American Institute of Architects. Our final email was from Rudy who recommends Tried and True finishes and provided us with this excellent spreadsheet for calculated wood movement.
Our first voicemail was from Alan who is having trouble with his tablesaw binding during light cuts. Our second voicemail is from Roberto who is inquiring about the Laguna tablesaw. Our third voicemail is from Derryl who asks about Ohio Certified Stains.
A very happy and safe Thanksgiving to everyone!
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