Expert: Jamie Yocono - 10/29/2006

Question
Is there a way to straighten dried warped or twisted rough sawn boards?

Answer
Dennis,

There is really only one true way to straighten out warped wood, and you need a good jointer and a planer. Now some people will say you can do it with other tools, even some hand tools, but in my opinion, you can't.

Also- this is sort of hard to explain, but we have to establish that there are three different surfaces of a board. The faces, the edges, and the ends.

Starting with the jointer- you need to flatten one face of the board, eliminating any twist, cup or bow. The jointer is the only tool that can do this. Once you establish a perfectly flat face, you can plane the opposite side of it in the planer. So you've created two parallel surfaces. You're almost there to achieving a square board out of warped wood.

When you have two parallel faces,  you need to go back to the jointer and with one of the faces against the fence, create a 90 degree angle on an adjacent edge. OK now, so far you've got three sides of the board all square to each other. Now you can rip that last edge on a tablesaw, thus creating a board that is square and true.

Squaring up a board is one of the basics in woodworking. And the funny thing is- there are a lot of woodworkers who don't know how to do it correctly! Here are a couple things to think about- if the board is in really bad shape, squaring it up will take a lot of waste off the board, especially during the first step of flattening a face. So your warped stock must be a good deal thicker than what you want to end up with. Here's an example, I recently needed a scrap of 2 x 4 for a jig I was making, and the only piece I had was badly warped. By the time I had straightened it out, the 2 x 4 was down to about 3/4" thick. So I lost 50% of my wood to sawdust!

Another thing- be careful flattening that board on the jointer. Don't let it rock, hold it steady. Use push blocks, and think about what you're doing. It's important, as this can be a little dicey.

OK, good luck, I hope this helps. Please feel free to write back if you have any further questions after reading this.  And if this answer was helpful... please take a minute and rate my service. Thanks!

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com