Warped lid on box

[Embarrassed Newbie]

Second post, second fail.  This project is a box for holding eye glasses.  My daughter saw the design online for $200+.  I said "I can do that."  ...mmm, maybe...  It's a simple box with dividers.  The flocking inside turned out great.  Top (don't recall the species of wood) has a glass inlay that worked well.  A bit sloppy on the underside, but looked good from the outside.  At first, the only problem was the back wall was too thin for the hinges that I used.  Need to rethink the hinge issue.  Here is the finished project when first completed.

Three months later, I saw the box again.  Note the warp in the lid. 

How do you ensure the wood is dry enough?  How do you dry wood in a garage?  Thanks.

[pkinneb]

Can you provide some info on how you prepared the stock for the top? Based on that we can provide better feedback.

 

[curlyoak]

The top should be remade. It should have 4 sticks of wood with good joinery. Could be mortice and tenon or dominoes...

[Embarrassed Newbie]

I believe the top was made with a 4/4 by 4 inch wide board.  The 4/4 was resawed and glued together to make a 8inch wide plank.  Then flatted with a planer.  You can't see the seam at all and there is no crack there.  Inset for plexiglass was made with jigsaw and a rabbet to hold the glass was made with a router.  Edges were also rounded over with router.   

Not sure how to make a mortice and tenon joint on a top that isn't more than 3/8 inch thick.  The box is with my daughter in her dorm, so I can't measure it, but it was thin. 

[Tom King]

Splined miters.

[gee-dub]

I have made boxes with 3/8" thick material.  Let me think about this . . . 

I went back to look but, do not find any pieces with parts that thin and that large that were not joined so another piece so, no good example.

I was thinking about Gary Rogowski's keepsake box but, after checking realize is is bread-boarded.

 

[RichardA]

There's a clue here that seems to be overlooked.  "How do you dry wood in a garage"!  Is that how the wood for the top was dried originally?  The way it's warped, kinda tells me, that the wood was not dried properly and well enough.

[wtnhighlander]

Thin boards seem to warp more as they dry, in my experience. The ambient moisture content of your daughter's dorm is likely different from your garage, anyway. That design really begs for a 4-piece frame to avoid the warp.

[Embarrassed Newbie]

The wood was fairly fresh from a hardwood distributor.  I was cutting it perhaps a couple of days after bringing it home.  Both the distributor and my garage were very humid.  I have no idea what the moisture content was of the wood.  Now I've learned to check and have bought a meter.  But if it's too high, how do you dry it?  How long does it take?  I don't have the space to let the wood cure in my garage for a year (as I've seen discussed online). 

[RichardA]

  Then you're going to have to find a dealer or local sawyer, or one we have here on site, that actually knows how wood is supposed to be dried for furniture use.  Google is your friend for local sawyers and hardwood dealers.   Spanky is the guy some of us buy from.  For me he's local, for others he;ll send it by truck. Talk with him after you look locally.

[wtnhighlander]

For small pieces, such as the parts for that box, a kitchen oven or even microwave can me used to remove moisture from the wood.

But I have no personal experience to tell how long or how hot it needs to be.

[krtwood]

You say you resawed the wood for the top.  You would have been better off planing it down, removing an even amount from each side.  The wood was probably dry, but you brought it into your humid shop and didn't give it enough time to acclimate to that.  So it started to gain moisture on each side but the middle was still dry.  Then you cut one side off.  Now one side is drier than the other and it cups.  

[curlyoak]

Your method violates the rules. This needs 4 piece frame. Make it 3/4" and make a 3/8" rabbited lip. it will appear to be 3/8". 

[JohnG]

9 hours ago, Embarrassed Newbie said:

The wood was fairly fresh from a hardwood distributor.  I was cutting it perhaps a couple of days after bringing it home.  Both the distributor and my garage were very humid.  I have no idea what the moisture content was of the wood.  Now I've learned to check and have bought a meter.  But if it's too high, how do you dry it?  How long does it take?  I don't have the space to let the wood cure in my garage for a year (as I've seen discussed online). 

You may want to sticker and stack your lumber for a while after bringing it home from the dealer. Periodically check it (over days or weeks) with your moisture meter and when it stops changing, that is the equilibrium moisture content for your shop. If you have any wood that has been sitting around in the shop for a long time, you can also compare the moisture content between that and new lumber that you buy. 

If you give your general location, someone here may be able to tell you the approximate EMC for that area. 

How long it takes will depend on how it was dried and the humidity where you store it, airflow, etc. There are some rules of thumb, but they are very general and it is easy to be much different than actual.

Another thing that you have to consider is where the piece will end up. If it ends up somewhere with a very different humidity level (could even be the difference between your garage and inside your house), you can run into issues if you don’t plan for it. 

[Byrdie]

12 hours ago, curlyoak said:

Your method violates the rules. This needs 4 piece frame. Make it 3/4" and make a 3/8" rabbited lip. it will appear to be 3/8". 

Rules?!  

I've both seen and made plenty of boxes with a single piece solid top ... with success.  A one piece top rather than a laminated or assembled piece just looks better in some cases.

That being said, there are some possible identifiers as to what failed here.  The first is the OPs description of his (I assume "his") methods and the second is the visual evidence.

This lid did not balance equally while it was constructed and when it was completed.  There is more moisture loss from one side than the other.  While I've had moderate success at resawing, in this case there is a suggestion above as to what would've been the better method - one that removes waste equally from both sides of the board so as to maintain balance.

Some other options besides a one piece top (that should've worked) would be curlyoak's "rule" that you should've used 4 pieces, either edge laminated with alternating grains or built as a frame around your opening jointed at the corners.  This would've put the grain on the end pieces perpendicular to the sides.  Finally, you could've used a piece of veneered ply with edge banding but that wouldn't have allowed the nice rounding and broken edge that your lid has.

The woodworking lesson here is to work your piece slowly.  While your bringing it down to final thickness, remove some from both sides equally and then let the piece sit for a couple days to see which way it moves.  Then you can adjust your approach bit by bit removing more thickness from alternating sides until you reach your desired depth.

[curlyoak]

The cross pieces with grain 2 or 3 inches long "breaks the rules". The rule of common sense. Or logic. Or good technique. That look would work much better with plywood. But it still is not the look I would prefer. A 4 stick frame for my eye and experience is my best choice. More likely to lay flat too.

If I made a frame and the 2 short pieces had wood with the grain like the warped piece, it would also distort. Maybe quartered would lay flat...

[Embarrassed Newbie]

Thanks so much for all the advice guys.  I've learned a lot and really enjoyed sitting and listing to the conversation.  I love this forum and the time that you guy give to a Newbie!