Warped wooden stud to become straight?

[peterwesterlund]

You need to plane them.

So the answer is no? It can't be soaked and then pressed during drying?

 

[sinuslinus]

In theory maybe. You need a lot more power than weights.
Heat is more effective, like basning, but I would never expend that much energy on spruce studs.

If you have had the studs indoors at room temperature for at least a month, you can use a jointer and planer to get the studs straight and without twisting. They won't warp again as long as you don't put them outside.

 

[peterwesterlund]

The situation is quite the opposite, they were first outdoors at the hardware store and then I brought them inside, and it was when they dried indoors that they warped. So my thought now was to "start over." Get them moist again so they become pliable and then let them dry under pressure. Just like I did with another pair of boards I bought at the lumber yard and pressed them right when I brought them in. Then they became straight. The question is whether this is something you can only do the first time or if it can be done just as easily over and over again?

 

[sinuslinus]

Test it but it takes quite a lot of force to straighten a regel.

 

[peterwesterlund]

Try, but it's quite a lot of force to straighten out a ruler.

But is it harder to straighten them now than when I bought them? Have they kind of "stuck" in their position more now that I've dried them? That even if I wet them again, it will be harder to get them to change position? Compared to when I bought them and held them in press during drying, that is. Do you understand?

 

[sinuslinus]

If they were straight when you bought them and set them in tension, it's much harder now when you have to "reshape them."

 

[Shakula]

Hmm where to begin...

First of all, it's the humidity that affects wood, not the heat. When you buy studs, they are very moist in the store, as well as when they are delivered to the store compressed with many studs together.
Then, when you bring them home, they will dry in your home environment. This means that the wood will strive to warp as it desires. In theory, you might be able to force it (but not with the toy clamps you have), and after a couple of months, it would be dry enough to be considered furniture dry. But it will still warp, and the only right thing to do is to plane it flat after it has dried to the correct level.

Studs are intended for building houses, not for easily building furniture. I and most beginners make the same mistake, so don't feel like you're alone.
But there are no shortcuts; you should buy furniture dry timber or glued laminated boards, as many have written here. Especially if you don't have the tools to process the wood.
Otherwise, you must accept the result you now see. And it will likely happen more since the wood still hasn't dried. Trying to force it with screws will only cause the wood to crack.

 

[Avemo]

There are a couple of methods to achieve flat boards. You can let them dry indoors for a few months and then plane them. You can glue together several thinner pieces into a larger one. With sufficient tension, you might be able to glue twisted pieces together and keep them straight afterward. But there must be many glue joints and the components should be taken from different raw materials so that each wants to twist in different ways. Then they can counteract each other. So it might work to split your crooked pieces into perhaps 20x45 and sort them so that the grain deviates as much as possible between two adjacent pieces, and then glue them together. To have less visible glue joints, the surfaces should be planed. But then it becomes a lot of work, especially if you don't have good machines. Wetting them, letting them dry under tension, and hoping they stay flat when released after a couple of months is, I think, doomed to fail.

 

[peterwesterlund]

It's the humidity I've been talking about the whole time. I haven't mentioned anything about heat, have I? Anyway, as I've already mentioned, I have successfully managed with two beams that I took home and clamped immediately. So, it is possible, obviously. What it's about now is whether I can reuse a couple of other beams that are already screwed.

Planing and splitting the beams is not something I can do. I don't have the equipment. I can buy more clamps and buy gluing clamps and glue. That's what I can work with.

 

[Stefan1972]

I understand your thought, but managing to get a few pieces straight is probably as random as some warping from the lumber yard. Dimensional lumber is a pure lottery because it is selected based on what it will be used for. The best thing you can do if you want to work with such lumber is simply to be extremely careful when selecting. Inspect them as much as you can, avoiding knots and such. That at least increases the chances of it staying straight. Heating and shaping wood usually only works where it is used together with other materials and then held in that position.

 

[sinuslinus]

I wrote about heat during wood bending. Then you use hot steam to transfer the heat into the wood. When the piece of wood is warm, it can be bent and set under tension until it cools down. It is the heat and not the moisture that is desired.

Otherwise, I think the discussion about granreglar isn't progressing much further now.

 

[lob]

It's the humidity I've been talking about the whole time. I haven't mentioned anything about heat, have I? Anyway, as I said, I've already succeeded with two studs I brought home and clamped directly. So, it's obviously possible. What this is about now is whether I can reuse a pair of other studs that are already screwed.

Planing and splitting the studs is not something I can do. I don't have the equipment. I can buy more clamps and buy bar clamps and glue. That's what I can work with.

Hi
I think it'll be cheaper for you if you contact a joinery to plane the wood. Or even cheaper to go to the nearest school and find the woodwork teacher. A loaf of coffee bread in the teacher's lounge is usually enough.

 

[Avemo]

Well, as I mentioned, I have already succeeded with two beams that I took home and clamped directly. So it is obviously possible. What this is about now is whether I can reuse a couple of other beams that are already screwed.

If you have the time and willingness, just give it a try. It might work. The risk is small if it fails.

 

[peterwesterlund]

I've thrown away all the studs that became warped and come up with the next thing I plan to try. Buy one of these: https://www.byggmax.se/kök-och-hushåll/köksinredning/bänkskivor/bänkskiva-furu-p09309 and split it in two and glue them together on top of each other so it becomes 30.5 cm deep and 5.2 cm thick.

Any tips for the gluing? I've bought a lot of clamps. Anything I should consider with how I attach the clamps? I have some scraps of solid oak countertops I was thinking of using between the clamps and what I'm gluing together.

 

[sinuslinus]

Place strong tension pieces (like your beams) across the grain direction on the shelf that you tighten with the clamps.
Spread the glue in an even layer and not just in strands.