Processing large pieces of wood

[MattS]

I've scored a rather enormous haul of iroko and sapele on Facebook. To be honest I misjudged the size of the pieces in the photos and there weren't any measurements so I now have a huge pile of wood to store somewhere :lol:

I've not processed anything very large before and there's one board which is a bit intimidating and I don't know quite what to do with. It's I think sapele, 18" x 1 1/2" x 2.7m long! It has a slight cup but the length a fairly significant twist.

Don't have a project in mind for it, do I cut it into sections for manageable storage? With the twist I think I'd lose a lot of material if I tried to get it flat. And anyway it is far too wide for my P/T and I'm never going to do it by hand!

Or do I move it on, to see it used for something as it is?

Basically I feel bad contemplating cutting up such a large old slab, what should I do!

 

[Mike G]

If you cut it, it will NEVER be the right size for whatever project you think of for it. I'd store it full-size, and only break it down when I knew what I was doing with it. Sapele can be a bit of a pain to plane with a hand plane, but it can be done. I guess you're probably more likely to rip it in half length-ways, put it through the planer/ thicknesser, then glue it back together.

 

[MattS]

You're right it will never be the correct length if I cut it - Hadn't considered ripping lengthways, I was thinking cross cut but ripping would at least allow machining.

 

[PAC1]

I agree with Mike, if you process it now it is bound to be short in at least one direction when you come to use it. So the question is can you find somewhere to safely store it off the ground and sticked until you have a use for it? If not moving it on might be a better plan
In my experience Iroko is one of the worst woods for machining. I ended up with a very nasty skin condition from Iroko when I was 20, I do not go anywhere near it. So take precautions when you process it Good dust extraction and well ventilated space

 

[AndyP]

First rule of wood sizing.

Keep it as long as you can for as long as you can

 

[Woodbloke]

First rule of wood sizing.

Keep it as long as you can for as long as you can

I'd agree with that, but I've never made anything bigger than 1.5m long or high (I haven't got the space to do bigger stuff),so there's not much point in keeping it long. When I get hold of lumber ('murricanism' ) I usually get it cut to around 2m or so that it will stack comfortably in the 'shop.

The board of sapele sounds a winner, but if it's twisted, it'll always revert to being twisted no matter how flat you plane it - Rob

 

[Cabinetman]

Hmm not sure about that Rob. What will make it move just because it’s been planed?

 

[Malc2098]

The sapele could be resawn to veneer thicknesses for a variety of purposes.

Veneer could be glued to a flat substrate, or even bent around a form like in my hobby. It doesn't matter then about its desire to twist.

 

[Woodbloke]

Hmm not sure about that Rob. What will make it move just because it’s been planed?

It's the stresses inside the wood Ian, caused by the way the tree has grown. Once those stresses are there, in my experience it's all but impossible to remove them. F'r example, on 'Britta's Cabinet' wot I finished at the end of June, the original closing door stiles:



...in air dried English Oak developed a slight bow, no more than a scant mm at worst and despite being planed flat severial times, and constant 'resting' to acclimatise, the bow always :evil: came back. You can appreciate that in this situation, I needed to have stiles that were dead 'true' with no prospect of bowing, so I had to resort to some kilned Euro oak which fortunately was a decent colour match with the air dried.

The sapele could be resawn to veneer thicknesses for a variety of purposes.

Veneer could be glued to a flat substrate...

I think that's exactly what I would do with it as well, but then you've a) got to have the capacity and kit to accurately resaw and b) find some other decent un-bendy stuff for any other bits of a future project - Rob

 

[Mike G]

Veneer? Have you seen the size of the board? You'd end up with 200+ sheets of 9" x 27", I reckon, at 2mm thick. And surely you'd need a drum sander if you were going to attempt that, wouldn't you? Although it's a nice enough wood, sapele, it's not that special that making half-an-acre of veneer could be justified, in my view.
My experience of flattening timber isn't entirely the same as Rob's. I've successfully flattened wood many times, although of course I have also flattened it unsuccessfully as well. And there are endless uses for less-than-perfect pieces of wood. Sapele is extremely durable, so outdoor furniture is one of the obvious things that jumps to mind. One or two not-quite-straight bench slats, for instance, is neither here nor there.

 

[clogs]

large lumps of exotic wood should be treated like gold....

I have a largish lump of Euro Oak thats allowed to be stored in a corner of the front room.....
no plans for it yet, might take another year or so......
my mrs is rather good about that sort of thing.....

 

[MattS]

Thanks for all the advice, I was wary of cutting it and have decided to keep it whole and worked out a place to stash it. It’s so big I suspect it will stay there for sometime, I have loads of other pieces to work with!

With regards to veneers, no way my little bandsaw could handle that!