Kiln Dried Platter/tray movement

[Ukellis]

Hi,

I’ve recently been making some oak and sycamore platters and trays 12” x 1.5” and they all have a pretty substantial wobble/warp almost straight after turning.This is before doing any sanding or anything like that. By the time I’ve finished the second face the chucked 1st face  is already out and wobbling.

Moisture content is 10%ish kiln dried

I have been going crazy trying to figure out how to counteract this. It seems crazy to double turn kiln dried wood like green wood. Are there any other solutions?

Workshop is minimum 17c and moisture 55% which seems pretty normal in U.K. homes.

Thanks in advance.

[seventhdevil]

it's called acclimatisation.

kiln drying will always dry the wood out too much for the UK environment and most pieces (if they are to be placed in a house) will need to be left in the house first for a couple of months to let an equilibrium event take place. once they are at the equilibrium they can be turned with little or no warping


keep i mind that it can also be the release of stresses in the timber one the wood has been turned away that have contorted the wood.


i would rough out the pieces first then leave them in the house and turn them a few months later.



its all a learing curve.

[Paul Hannaby]

Have you ever tried to cut a 2" board into two 1" boards? You can start off with one straight board and produce two bowed boards. It's not the moisture content, the residual stresses in the wood (maybe from the drying process) are released when you cut into it and that results in movement.

[bodrighywood]

10% into a 55% atmosphere is going to take on  moisture for certain but to have the movememt that quick is more likely due to releasing the stress in the wood as Paul says. Steves suggestion of roiugh turning then leaving it for a while before finishing is  your best bet. Personally I avoid kiln dried wood as it invariably ends up warped and / or split in my experience.

Pete

[Ukellis]

Thanks all, really helpful information. The learning curve regarding movement of wood is very steep!

I had a quick look on the site I got the blanks and the sycamore was air dried and the oak may be either as it says air dried on one page, kiln dried on the next page. I’m used to using kiln dried for flat work so just presumed everything bought is.

From you comments would it make sense to turn the wax off of the blanks so they have more ability to acclimatise?
And following on from that would it be better to sticker them rather than stack directly to allow as much air flow as possible?

I measured the trays turned yesterday and they are reading around oak 6% and sycamore 8% both sides and another beech tray I did a few months ago which is reading 7%.Seems very dry to me but the supplier is one of the best known and positively viewed so would have thought they would be a good blanks.