I have been asked to make a large tabletop tray, 26" x 26". I am going to make it out of Koa. The wood I have has been in my shed dry and stickered but unheated for almost a year and a half. It measures about 10% on my cheap moisture meter. By necessity I am going to have to make it out of strips. My question is how wide should I make the strips? I intend to make the body of the tray about 3/4 to an 1" thick and don’t want it to crack, but with Koa the wider the strip the better as the grain and figuring will stand out better. Any info or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
BilI, have taken the wider boards ripped them into narrower boards ,then matched the grain back together the way it was, but the tensions in the board are all gone so there is no cracking and you have to look closely to see the cuts.
Herb
I don’t know how wide the boards are that you have to cut. (13) 2" wide boards would work, that way you will have a center board and 6 ea. on each side. But get the most out of the width you have,
Herb
can I suggest you acclimate e the wood to an indoor environment for a week or two first before you start your project…
that depends on the grain…
see the PDF’s for some help
like Herb said… rip the boards w/ a narrow kerf blade and match grain them back together…
after you rip let the strips set for a few day to see if the wood moves and the cut edge has a chance to acclimate…
Note…
if you use a glue line blade you’ll save yourself a lot of work…
I forgot to mention, right after you rip a board meter the face and the newly cut edge. I believe you’ll find the readings will differ…, give them a chance to stabilize in like readings…
FWIW…
I swear by this blade for ripping… they are impressive…
one more thing… (of course there’s always just one more thing)…
when you do your glue up - treat the wood as an oily tropical wood…
since this is wide top WeldBond and splining (use thin Baltic Birch ply for the splines) work well in your favor…
Just bought the saw blade, on sale at Amazon for $58. Looking forward to trying it out. Read the material as well. Would be grateful if you could explain what you mean by splining. I understand the oily wood problems. I did a strip layup for a boat rail using teak. Used Resorcinol back then but I am sure there are better choices now. As I have said before I have a great deal of stock on hand. I you would like to play with some of it, I am more than happy to share. I am currently processing 200 bd.ft. into turning stock for Woodcrafters and that won’t dent the stack.
Splines…
Beauty, function and strength…
think of a spline as a tongue and groove joint only better fitting,
and they go a long way in helping keep the edge joints flush…
for a table top make the splines blind… (don’t carry the slot all the way to the end of your boards)…
Note…
one of the most versatile cutters to make spline slots besides the TS is a stackable slotting bit used in your freehand router or RT… (Router Table)…
there’ more on splining in the Joinery thread…
this is Freud’s 61-102 slot cutter…
