Straightening warped timber for a dash

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steve the ford guy
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Straightening warped timber for a dash

Post by steve the ford guy »

Anyone know about straightening bowed timber to use for a dash panel?
Last edited by steve the ford guy on Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Sly Fox
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Re: .

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Steve, when you say straighten are you meaning flatten the face of the timber.
How bent is it and how thick do you want the timber to be when finished.

The usual process to flatten is to pass the timber over a planer until flat on one side and then pass it through a thicknesser to reduce it to the required thickness and it will end up being flat and equal in thickness.

A carpentry shop or timber mill could easily do the job and it wouldn't take long, someone might even have the equipment at home.
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steve the ford guy
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Re: .

Post by steve the ford guy »

Thanks for the reply Sly Fox, after watching YouTube I found a solution. I'm soaking the bowed/bent timber in water for a week then clamping between straight pieces for another week, with all this rain I've placed it outside in a container with a brick holding it down under the water, will clamp it between timbers on Saturday, hoping to get it milled down from it's rough sawn condition, it's about one inch thick, down to 12mm thick. Would be a shame to waste such a rare piece of timber.
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Sly Fox
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Re: Straightening warped timber for a dash

Post by Sly Fox »

Steam is another way to bend or straighten timber.

Hopefully your plan will work and with a bit of machining you'll be able to make a stunning dash.
Make sure you post pics once its done.
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steve the ford guy
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Re: Straightening warped timber for a dash

Post by steve the ford guy »

Just looking at it again, decided to place inch thick timber spacers each end and lots of house bricks right over the high area, then more water to cover, will let you know if it worked.
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steve the ford guy
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Re: Straightening warped timber for a dash

Post by steve the ford guy »

Added more bricks onto the high spot on the piece of Huon pine, and after just one night, I'm seeing it coming good. Took it out this morning and it's very straight, placed it between heavy timbers with the largest clamps I have, will leave it to dry now until next Saturday, but I'm happy with how it's looking. :D
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Re: Straightening warped timber for a dash

Post by jeffa »

A bit late probably but if that fails, maybe a call to one of the Tassie wooden boat builders. Warping Huon pine is de riguer for those guys.
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steve the ford guy
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Re: Straightening warped timber for a dash

Post by steve the ford guy »

Yeah Jeffa, well, I'm a long way north from there, (Tassie)
don't tell em I'm straightening out a bit of their famous Huon wood, straightening wood is just not the done thing with boatbuilders :lol:
The guy I got it from was making bowls from bits of it on a lathe, he gave me a piece for free, that's a price I like :D
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