Woodworking

7168 readers

6 users here now

A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @[email protected] whose father was inspired to start woodworking by Norm and the New Yankee Workshop.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

NataliePortland

Best way to flatten a piece? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/woodworking

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Can anyone tell me how can I flatten a Minecraft heart please? I've put this together:

https://www.instructables.com/MineCraft-Heart-wood/

but I've noticed that it bows slightly. I've managed to get the ends to raise slightly when I've screwed it together. The top needs to be smoothed too, as there are some small differences between the pieces. Both sides are only off by a millimetre or two, but it's enough to be noticeable.

My thinking is to clamp it down at the centre, which seems to be mostly flat on both sides, then sand the top until it's level, then flip it over and clamp the edges to smooth the bottom.

Are there any likely problems with doing it this way, or is there a better way of doing it? Thanks in advance :)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I haven't worked with wood in years, but when I did I was in a high humidity enviro.

To flatten and prevent future warping we would dry out our flat pieces in an oven set at 250F for a few days then stabilize with resin using a vacuum chamber. Following this, pieces would be planed to final thickness.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Thanks, but unfortunately it hasn't warped, it's just user error. I cut the pieces from the same length of wood, but didn't quite get them flat across the width when I either screwed or glued them together.

I had to screw most of the pieces together from left to right, so I stacked them on top of each other to drill the pilot holes downwards. With hindsight I would have taken longer and clamped them to a flat surface with another flat surface on top, and drilled sideways, if that makes sense.