Stumbled on a stat about wood movement that blew my mind

I was reading an old Fine Woodworking issue from 2018 last night and found out that a 24 inch wide oak panel can shrink almost a quarter inch just from seasonal humidity changes. I always knew wood moved but I never put a ruler to it like that. Now I'm second guessing every glue up I did last summer when the shop was humid. Has anyone else had a panel warp bad enough to ruin a project?

3 comments

3 Comments

markh851mo ago

Man that stat really got me rethinking my own stuff too.

blair_taylor321mo ago

Held that same magazine in my hands and had the opposite reaction. That stat is real but it only matters if you cut corners on your joinery. I've got a cherry table I built six years ago in a garage with no climate control and it's still flat as a board because I used proper breadboard ends and let the wood acclimate before cutting. People blame wood movement for their failures but usually it's bad design or rushing the build that's the real culprit.

miller.rowan1mo ago

Breadboard ends are great and all, but they need to be done with the right hardware. A lot of folks just glue the whole thing solid and that's where the trouble starts. You need to use elongated screw holes or a sliding tenon so the middle can expand and contract. If you pinned it tight at both ends, that cherry table would have split by now unless you live in a really stable humidity zone. Did you use a sliding dovetail or just a floating tenon with some wiggle room?