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swelling in cabinet doors

6/10/19       
Stone5 Member

I recently made some cabinet doors for a customer. They were raised panel, stile and rail doors with 3" stiles and rails. They were made with beech.
The customer waited about 5 or 6 weeks after doors were made before picking them up. He had them painted, and at the time they were fine. After being installed on the cabinets, the stiles and rails grew about 1/32" in width, causing the rails to protrude past the stiles (see image).
Our doors are made with cope and stick construction with the panel groove being 1/2" deep. Panels are let into stiles and rails 5/16" leaving 3/16" for expansion, and space balls are used to center panel.
We are in east Texas where the humidity is high. At the time these doors were made and while they sat in the shop waiting to be picked up it rained most every day.
This was a pretty large order of doors and I want to be fair with my customer.
The A/C has been on now for 6 days with no sign of doors returning to normal.
Any advice?
Thanks very much.


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6/10/19       #2: swelling in cabinet doors ...
Tom Gardiner

Flat sawn American beech has the largest coefficient of expansion of all the common hardwoods. This helps to explain the large amount of movement on such a relatively small width. 3" x .00431 x 4% moisture change = .052" (3/64").
In my experience wood doesn't return as far back as the initial movement. There's a lovely word for that - hysteresis I think. Unfortunately the expansion has damaged the bead making the rework harder.
You may want to reconsider beech as a door wood. Have a look at a list of species and the coefficients for a better selection.

6/11/19       #3: swelling in cabinet doors ...
Paul Miller

Website: http://MCCWOODWORKING.COM

I once had a job where we ordered a large 3" thick Maple island top. When we received the top, it had been shipped in a wooden box wrapped in foam. When we installed the top, the house was still under construction and to protect the top, we put the foam on top of the top and flipped the shipping box on top of it. About a month later, when we took the packing box off, the top had warped. The owner refused to pay for it and I contacted the maker of the top. The fabricator suggested that we wait for a month or two to see if it would come back to the original flatness. It did come back.

I would suggest you wait a longer period of time. I am not too familiar with Beech. I have used it on occasions, I do not recall any problems. The issue with Beech is that you will not be ale to get high grade long lengths. The tree rots in the center and Loggers don't want to waste their time falling them and Mills don't want to take the time to cut it up and the same with the Kilns. It is a cheap wood and the land owner gets nothing for it. Most of the lumber is used in making pallets.

When the major cost in your doors is labor, it probably isn't a good idea to save money on the wood you use.

Also, if you make this door again, you might consider a mortise and tenon mitered corner frame. If your frame comes together at 45 degrees, both the stiles and rails should expand at the same rate.

6/12/19       #4: swelling in cabinet doors ...
Dave Sochar Member

When you buy lumber, it is as dry as it will ever be. East Texas humidity will provide underlining for that statement.

Beech is one of the worst for joinery.

Mortise and tenon with cope and stick can help prevent/eliminate movement.

6 days is too short. 6 weeks or better, 6 months, are required to see movement. But you will see it only return to approximately 50% of where it was.

6/17/19       #5: swelling in cabinet doors ...
Stone5 Member

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post, very helpful information.
I have another question that I am trying to figure out. These doors were in my shop for over 5 weeks once they were completed. As I stated already, these doors were fine when they left here. The painter took these doors to his shop to paint them (not sure how much time they were there), and according to him, they were fine when he finished painting them. Then they were taken to a jobsite and installed on cabinets. It was after that that they moved. Does this make since? If the lumber had been soaking up moisture all this time, would it take this long to see a difference? I have doors out in my shop that have been here for months unfinished and they are still good. This is my first experience with this problem, just trying to figure it out.

11/5/19       #6: swelling in cabinet doors ...
Redneck

The finisher is full of it... That door was that way when the finish was applied. The finisher should have caught the defect(s) before finishing. Look at the glazing at the joint in the outside bead.


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