Yesterday I was working on a 2' by 6" piece of American Poplar (Tulipwood) which is earmarked as one end of the bottom skirt of my toolbox. In its rough sawn state it was nigh on flat and planing and sawing revealed that it was more or less the definition of quarter sawn with the grain running spot on at 90° to width. So I squared up five sides and then resawed to final thickness.
The thing is that I was shocked to see the extent to which it then bowed along its length: poss as much as 1/16". It had obviously not read the text books. It must have been down to tension being released as it has spent a couple of months settling in to the fairly stable workshop conditions. It's the first piece of Tulipwood which has not stayed stable for me after planing. I mention all this because it simply seems remarkable.
The second thing is - and I'd be grateful for views on this - I reckon I can still use it because the thickness is uniform what with the bowing occurring after resawing and so I reckon I can easily clamp it flat while cutting the dovetails on the ends. Then my idea is to glue it on to the box with the concave side facing out from the box i.e. pulling the bow straight and it will then of course be further held in place by the connecting joints on the two long bits of skirt to which it will be joined. Does that sound like a plan?
The thing is that I was shocked to see the extent to which it then bowed along its length: poss as much as 1/16". It had obviously not read the text books. It must have been down to tension being released as it has spent a couple of months settling in to the fairly stable workshop conditions. It's the first piece of Tulipwood which has not stayed stable for me after planing. I mention all this because it simply seems remarkable.
The second thing is - and I'd be grateful for views on this - I reckon I can still use it because the thickness is uniform what with the bowing occurring after resawing and so I reckon I can easily clamp it flat while cutting the dovetails on the ends. Then my idea is to glue it on to the box with the concave side facing out from the box i.e. pulling the bow straight and it will then of course be further held in place by the connecting joints on the two long bits of skirt to which it will be joined. Does that sound like a plan?
