True or false. I can straighten a piece of wood by wetting it and putting it in the Sun.


ridnharley

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Not my best video, but it gets the process across (it was a long day) :-/. Cupping is all about uneven stress within the board and it can be "worked with" by moisture, heat or both. Depending on how severe the cup is it can be managed with good success.. Agree with Schaffer that air dried has more work-a-bility than kiln

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It's only a temporary fix.  Most likely it will go back to its original shape later.  The internal stress that's causing the distortion in shape isn't gonna go away, it's only going to be alleviated momentarily.  Bowed wood needs to be milled flat.

 

The wet grass trick could be helpful if you have a slightly bowed panel that you need to get into a frame...once it's in there the frame will help keep it flat.  But if you have a piece that you need to get flat and stay that way on its own, you're fighting a losing battle.

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It's only a temporary fix. Most likely it will go back to its original shape later. The internal stress that's causing the distortion in shape isn't gonna go away, it's only going to be alleviated momentarily. Bowed wood needs to be milled flat.

The wet grass trick could be helpful if you have a slightly bowed panel that you need to get into a frame...once it's in there the frame will help keep it flat. But if you have a piece that you need to get flat and stay that way on its own, you're fighting a losing battle.

Agree completely IF properly dried, stickered and stored. But, if excess moisture ever saw that board you may be correcting abuse instead of warping against internal stress.

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Not to get the loader in. This may be impractical, and this is why it is followed by a question mark. The only corrective action I can imagine is based on red oak's good track record with steam bending. You do not need a box big enough for the loader. You steam the slab, pull it out, and use the loader to set something monstrously heavy on the slab. Again, it may well be impractical but this is the only way I see to preserve the slab thickness. Take it with salt.

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Just use it concave side up so stuff doesn't roll off...

 

In all honesty 1" up in the center of an 8' board is only 1.2 degrees off flat...so it's not like non-rolling stuff would slide off. =p

 

 

Is this going to have a sink or any other holes in it?   It might help relieve stress to coerce it flat...or could he cut some depressions/dadoes/etc in the bottom that won't be seen to achieve the similar effect?

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In all honesty 1" up in the center of an 8' board is only 1.2 degrees off flat...so it's not like non-rolling stuff would slide off. =p

I got the impression that the board was 1" off the table on the 18" side.  ie: there's a 1" tall gap running the full 8' length.

 

I don't have any new suggestions for removing the cup, but i do think it's worth mentioning that you could still cut it into 2 or 3 pieces for a glueup and keep the live edge.  You'd have glue lines that ran the length of the countertop, but i don't think that's a big deal.  People will focus on the live edge rather than the only slightly-noticeable glue lines.  

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