09-03-2013, 07:43 AM
(08-03-2013, 09:23 PM)pwdrive Wrote: Solid wood (not strip wood) softwood doors are a pain unless they are expensive ones, they go all over the place if you have centrall heating or constantly changing humidity levels.
A pressed hardboard panel door is better and lighter, the doors made from finger jointed stripwood are more stable than a solid one, I have these in our house, all half glazed, still straight with no warping. or swelling, light stained and just two thin coats of acrylic varnish to seal them, a slight rub down then wax polish, come up good evry time.
Lawrence.
These doors are certainly a high density chipboard (ie, not MFI low density), edged and veneered. As such, they are dimensionally very stable.
When I build the solid oak furniture, I take account of grain and grain curve as I assemble large pieces (say, for table tops). I then put on ends with slotted pegging to take account of any movement. By using pews that are 150+ years old, I can find stable planks up to 50cm wide and as long as 5m occasionally. I don't waste them by cutting or slitting them down. Those big pieces are used to their full potential in table or sideboard tops.
Over the decades, I have followed tips given to me by my gradfather on how to build furniture with inbuilt stability. I topped this off by diligently following Norm's New Yankee Workshop episodes - I taped them all and now have transferred them onto DVD. He has many tips and ideas apart from just building pieces of furniture. Before you all rush, I won't copy those DVDs for others as they are still copyright (which I respect) and mine are purely an archive for my own personal use.
Thank you all for the responses so far - maybe we should get back to Col's wonderful veneering of cabinets.
Colin
