Wood Movement Experiment: The Results

Written on June 29, 2009 at 1:24 pm, by Dave Campbell

You may recall a few weeks ago when Tom Iovino initiated a grand experiment about seasonal wood movement. He cut identical boards of several different species in his tropical Florida shop, and sent one set to me in Iowa and another set to The Wood Whisperer in arid Arizona.

We measured the boards when they arrived and again after acclimating to our respective climates for a couple of weeks. The question: How much would the boards change in length, width, and thickness?

Tom crunched the numbers and you can read the results in his blog at Tom’s Workbench.

Interestingly, the dew points (the measurement of moisture in the air) for Tampa and Des Moines were almost identical during the test period, which probably affected the results.

We can continue this experiment. Any suggestions on what to try next?

Dave at WOOD