Taking the warp out of a cabinet door


Chuck Melton

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My sister in law recently purchased an antique jam and pickle cabinet. It's made of maple and the door is tongue and groove about 3/4" thick face screwed into two cross pieces fo maple on the back.

 

Would it be best to disassemble the door panel and run the boards through a jointer? Remove the cross pieces and clamp it flat with cauls?

 

As always, any advice is greatly appreciated.

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If she wants to keep the antique charm but make it functional, I'd stay away from the jointer. 

 

Was this warped when she acquired it?  Did it only just warp?  Is there a finish on it?

I'd ask (or answer) these three questions first before doing anything.  I'd venture to say that one possible option is that the wood is merely adjusting to it's new home, and will normalize shortly.  What form normal will take remains to be seen.

 

Personally, if there was no finish on the board, or the finish was applied a long time ago, I'd consider removing the panel and getting it wet before clamping it flat to a large enough surface.  (Cauls would work there.)  If it's plywood, however, I'd try to replace the plywood and simulate the age on the replacement piece.  Once that goes, I don't know of a way to save it.

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She bought it warped and someone had previously sanded the finish off of it. The door is 6 pieces of hardwood so I think it would take well to be being clamped flat.

 

She has had it down in her fairly damp basement for a week but the wood still felt like it had barely any moisture in it.

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Check it with a moisture reader. It doesn't take much time at all for a dry board to suck up a lot of moisture.  (This can work for you, though.)  I just don't know how wet it would need to get to be able to straighten it back out.  Someone else with more experience definitely needs to speak up at this point.

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Hi Chuck,

 

In essence what you have is a small ledged door? Fig-497-Ledged-Door.jpg

These are very prone to twisting and distorting.

If the door has bowed evenly like a barrel it will most likely be a moisture problem. Allow the door a couple of weeks to acclimatise. If it is still bowed unscrew the ledges. With the ledges off take the time to make sure the ledges are flat (flatten if needed). Re-fix the boards to the ledges allowing a slight gap between each board. This will probably require new screw holes.

If its twisted, without striping the whole item to pieces it will difficult to know if it's a ledge(s) or board(s) that are causing the problem. As before strip the item down and check each item for twisting and bowing. If you are lucky you might be able to isolate the one problem component(s) and straighten it/replace it. Then re-fix the boards to the ledges.

Or you make a new door and try to match the old

Or you accept it's an old piece and try and adjust the hinges/catch to reduce the appearance of the twist/bow

 

The choice Chuck is yours  ;)

 

P.S. Sorry to hear about the jointer problem, hope you can get the spares.

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Thanks Particle and and JHop

 

Thanks again G S.

 

I actually just got back from picking up another $40 jointer that is on  stand and about 18 inches longer. The motor wasn't running but it's a standard 3450 rpm motor. I took the motor apart and everything looks good aside from the capacitor which looks a bit scorched. So hopefully a quick fix. I thought about trying to rig up the motor from the other jointer but despite it advertising 1 1/2 horsepower it doesn't seem like it would sufficient.

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