ibnaz5150 Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 I just recieved two 1/4" bookmatched sets of maple. Within 1-2 hours of sitting in my house they cupped bad. Granted they traveled quite aways through some cold bitter temps. They're in my house now at 72 degrees with 20% humidity. These sets are sold with a 10% moisture content. Was it the drastic temp change that made these cup that fast? I have them layered inbetween 2 pieces of mdf with roughly a 100lbs of weight on top. 2 big questions here.........what is "sticker and weight method"? and what's the best way to stores these for future use? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Whenever you get wood through the mail, ESPECIALLY thin stock, even if it's totally, completely dry, you must sticker and weight it. Have to have to have to. Google 'sticker wood storage' for pics, but the short version is: sticks, evenly spaced, stacked over each other, wood between, weight on top. Best pic I've got of my stacked and stickered stuff is really old, back when I only had about a dozen acoustic back/side sets (aah, the distant past...): BAD, not stacked and stickered" http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3/tonewood01.jpg GOOD, stacked, stickered, weight on top: As wood gets into a new environment, it needs to stabilise; relative humidity is related directly to temperature, so tempareature shifts cause humidity shifts as well. Your house is very, very dry (ideal building environment is 43-55% relative humidity. Ideal ideal is 43%. Far more important for acoustics than it is for electrics, though), though. Usually, if the wood was dry and stable to begin with, simply leaving the potato chips leaning against something for a few days will get most of the cupping out, as the pieces have the oppotunity to equalize evenly (airflow around all the edges/surfaces evenly). Doesn't always work, which is where the heat, water, sticker, weight stuff comes in. Alternately, sticker and weight immediatly, and prevent it from moving around like crazy in the first place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 I just recieved two 1/4" bookmatched sets of maple. Within 1-2 hours of sitting in my house they cupped bad. Granted they traveled quite aways through some cold bitter temps. They're in my house now at 72 degrees with 20% humidity. These sets are sold with a 10% moisture content. Was it the drastic temp change that made these cup that fast? I have them layered inbetween 2 pieces of mdf with roughly a 100lbs of weight on top. 2 big questions here.........what is "sticker and weight method"? and what's the best way to stores these for future use? Thanks Red tells me you are drying them rapidly if they were at 10% when shipped. Your going to have trouble with most any wood you bring into that dry of an environment. Until it stabalizes. Also if you can seal the end grain. You are going to draw moisture out quickly and end grain already releases moisture too quick(causes cracking and splits). Peace,Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibnaz5150 Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 (edited) Thanks again Mattia.you've helped me on some previous post as well and I truly appreciate it! It's winter time...the time I dable the most with woodworking. It's the reason for the dryness in my home. Fortunately with all my furniture I've built nothing has craked or split over the years. Trust me I would of ran out and bought a humidifier if I ran into that.My workshop is in the cellar...temp down there is 58-60 with the same humidity. I run a small heater when I get cool at times. The summers the other extreme with high humidity. Always had my hands full spraying lacquer..twidling my thumbs waiting for that ideal day for spraying........few and far between in my area. I now use waterbase lac and oil finishes. So back to the sticker & weight method....do this till I'm ready to work it? Edited January 31, 2007 by ibnaz5150 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 If you have the space, yes, leave it stickered and weighted as long as possible. Also, the stickers there are a bit large; 1/2" or so. Most of the time I use 1/4" plywood ripped into strips for thin pieces, at least once it's been stickered with the bigger stuff for a few weeks/months. Saves a lot of space (ie, the space taken up there now holds 3 times as many side sets as it does in that picture). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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