Preventing Cupping on Red Oak

[fstedy]

What are most of you folks doing to prevent cupping of wide boards other than weighting them down. A large percentage of the lumber I cut yeilds boards 12 to 24" wide. It would be nice to retain them at these widths if possible. I have been AD up to this point but am in the process of setting up a DH kiln. How about cutting thicker boards and planing the cup out.

[Homer]

fstedy,
In my experience, cupping depends on what part of the log and how it was cut, [flat saw or qt. saw,]. Growth ring oreintation will make boards cup. The closer to qt. sawn the better.As far as
  planing out cup, if you take light cuts and use a thin long wood shim, [wood only for safety], about the thickness of amount of cup under middle of board so the feed rollers can't flatten out cup as you plane. problem is you may have to plane so much the board will be to thin. Better of ripping in half.
Craftsman can glue up and have a flat wide board.

Homer
           

[DanG]

My experience with hardwoods is pretty limited, but I've noticed a couple of things.  One of these things is, some of it is gonna move, and some won't.  Q-sawn won't tend to cup as much, but tends to bow.(or is that crook?)  I've resigned to just utilize each board for the best use it can offer.  I have no shortage of firewood for my little cogitatin' fire. : :D

[woodbowl]

I've noticed that most furniture is laminated together with small strips. Cupping must be a problem to deal with. Either that or it must be more stable in another way.

[twoodward15]

Sell it green and you won't have that problem!!!   I'm kidding.  Are you selling any of the wide boards?  How much?

[Don_Lewis]

Cupping is can be prevented by drying faster at the beginning. Slow drying keeps the surface soft so that it cannot resist cupping. So make sure you get close to 3% per day average MC loss per day from green until about 35%. Cupping is one of the degrades made worse by air drying.

[fstedy]

Thanks guys I appreciate the advise.

[Don P]

I've always heard the same thing Don said. The reasoning is that dry wood is about twice as strong as green. If you can get the shell dryer and stronger early on it will prevent the drying stresses later from being able to distort the wood as much.

I worked in panel glue up for awhile, we would bust everything down to a maximum 4" width and then glue it back together to relieve stress and hopefully make a more stable panel. Nowadays I just find the wide ones that dried flat, rip the cupped ones and heat with the rest. If I can save stuff long enough I usually can make cabinet framestock and trims out of narrow rips. If it gets chilly in the shop, all bets are off  ;D.

[woodmills1]

have you tried stacking the widest boards on the bottem.  I fund an oak board of any size at the top of the pile will cup as the sun dries one side faster, so it is best to flip the top ones.