A little bit twisted

[NickM]

I took a photo of this table in a bar when we were on holiday before Christmas. It was so twisted that I'm surprised the glasses didn't slide off!

(PS this was in the French Alps not Svalbard - the bar has a bear theme which explains the polar bear poster.)

 

[Mike G]

Looks like the timber wasn't dry, and was quickly slapped together by someone who didn't know what they were doing. The metal plate on the end is awful.

A friend of mine has a 3 board oak table, and one of the outer boards has got a huge hump (maybe 35/ 40mm high) in the middle of the outer edge. He has had to make a specially shimmed place mat for anyone eating at that location. It's probably 300+ years old, so there isn't any thought of trying to flatten out the problem.

 

[duke]

I am sure this could be put right.

 

[Alasdair]

@Mike G has a sharp plane and set of winding sticks, he'd make short work of that.

 

[Mike G]

@Mike G has a sharp plane and set of winding sticks, he'd make short work of that.

It might be about 2mm thick in each corner, though........

 

[NickM]

It might be about 2mm thick in each corner, though........

I saw a youtube video which had a tagline something along the lines of "how to flatten boards without losing thickness". I didn't watch it.

 

[Mike G]

I saw a youtube video which had a tagline something along the lines of "how to flatten boards without losing thickness". I didn't watch it.

I don't blame you. There are two options, I guess. Rip it all down into very narrow boards and then glue it all back together, or, steam it flat.

Or, you know, buy dry flat boards in the first place.

 

[Chris152]

I'd imagine there are a lot of twisted, split tables around the UK these days. I worked for a friend selling slabs, along with other air-dried wood before and after the covid lock downs, at which time slab and resin tables became very popular. It came as quite a surprise to some customers (including people looking to make money from building to sell) when I told them they needed to reduce the moisture content over a period of months in a centrally heated house (or equivalent) before starting work on the slabs, if they planned to keep the table in the house. Not sure other mills/ suppliers were advising customers the same way.

 

[Woodbloke]

I'd imagine there are a lot of twisted, split tables around the UK these days. I worked for a friend selling slabs, along with other air-dried wood before and after the covid lock downs, at which time slab and resin tables became very popular. It came as quite a surprise to some customers (including people looking to make money from building to sell) when I told them they needed to reduce the moisture content over a period of months in a centrally heated house (or equivalent) before starting work on the slabs, if they planned to keep the table in the house. Not sure other mills/ suppliers were advising customers the same way.

I bet you never had slabs like these:



Some of them were around 2m long and 40-50mm thick - Rob

 

[Chris152]

I bet you never had slabs like these:

View attachment 31272

Some of them were around 2m long and 40-50mm thick - Rob

We did indeed! Pic shows one of the mills we worked on, it could do up to 4m length iirc,* any thickness you like so long as you're prepared to wait. I was turning wood at the time so had a fantastic choice of offcuts etc, never really got to grips with slabs. I still pop in to have a browse and admire the wood.

* Just popped in this morning = a little over 6m, apparently. Milled Wood Company, Cowbridge.