I jointed and planed a wood piece and got it nice and flat. I checked the piece a couple weeks later and it was clearly bowed/cupped. I’m still a novice so I’m wondering if this is standard and that I need to complete my projects shortly after the jointing/plaining or if there was something I did wrong. Thanks for the insight!
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Wood moves. Wood with tension moves a lot. Wood with tension moves a lot a lot after being cut.
Ideally you would let the wood you’re going to use acclimate in the area you’re going to work on it, and then either use it immediately after cutting it, or take a light cut initially, let it acclimate again now that you’ve opened it up, and then cut to final dimension and use immediately.
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Part of picking your wood is determining if it’s likely to have tension in it. This is more black art and getting used to it than anything else…. (Ps, I’m not great at this either but my grandpa used to look at a board and just know…. Old man magic)
Where in the tree the wood is from (closer to the pith or the bark), species, how much it was dried and how it was dried, if it’s been resting inside or out, etc… all have a factor on tension.
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I’d add that, in addition to tension/release of grain when milling wood, if it is not fully seasoned (read: sat for a year or so drying out), then exposing wetter areas of the wood during milling will certainly cause it to warp/cup/bow.
One basic mistake when dimensioning a board – say taking it from 2.? inches thick to 1.75 inches (or whatever) – is to only plane or joint one side. You now have a very dry side on one side and a probably significantly wetter side newly exposed…guaranteed to warp as the wet side dries out.
Always take equal amounts off of each side when working toward final thickness. It’s also best to then use it (i.e make whatever you are going to make) as soon as possible (per Ian’s comments) in the area/place where wood has been sitting, i.e. a stable environment, temp and humidity speaking, so that it has support as it continues to acclimate. E.G. it is hard for 2" x 2" strips of whatever to bow or warp once they are glued up in the middle of a nice, heavy, well-made cutting board.
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I’ll add, too, that we had people come into Rockler and say that we sold them a bad piece of wood because it warped, moved, or cupped. One lady took the wood from us and installed a shelf in the bathroom without finishing it.
Lots of moisture absorbed and the wood moved.
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Was this a single piece of wood or a glue-up?
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A single piece of wood
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Got nothing to add to answers above. Nature/science is a master like no other!
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So after initial milling and if it sits for more than a couple days run it through the drum sander( if we have sandpaper rolls sometimes we do) and that’ll get it back to the perfect milled without removing too much material plus it’ll remove planer snipe