"Derek Andrews" wrote in message
...
George wrote:
I think I did three-four woods with three or four types of crosspieces.
Almost 25% blew open, including, the first and only instance I've had
with aspen.

It seems to me that crossbracing is going to encourage cracking by not
letting the wood flex as it wants to. It may work with some species whose
strength is high and shrinkage is low, but for the sake of saving maybe
one centimeter of diameter, I don't think it is worth the risk.

--

The one under examination, which went toward warming the house last night,
had lost 1/4" of the ~10 it began with. Normal for hard maple that diameter
would have been 1/2", so there certainly wasn't a lot gained. I think what
kept this one from blowing apart was the obvious compression of the center
post.

I'm sure the concept was that the wood was in a plastic state when it was
merely wet. I have placed hot microwaved pieces over molds with reasonable
success, but there the lignin's weakened because of the heat. I know I
quickly discovered that trying to weight a stack of planks to control warp
was a fool's errand. Lot of power there.