laminating for thickness?

[myxpykalix]

This is a question for a future project. I am going to be asked to make a fairly elaborately carved headboard and footboard for a bed project. I have a friend who can cut a tree down and stick it in the kiln and give me dry walnut in any thickness i want.

I'm sure the headboard will need to be in excess of 1.5" thick and to keep it from bowing or warping would you suggest i laminate boards together to get my thickness or can i just use 1.5" thick boards?

[beacon14]

Jack,

If you can get 1.5" thick boards that are properly dried then you should be in good shape. The real question is the width of the boards. The best way to minimize warping of a glued-up panel is to make the strips no more than 3" wide, with the arc of the growth rings alternating when viewed from the ends (every other one curved like a cup, the rest curved like an umbrella).

That's not to say you can't get good results with wider boards, if they are straight grained and dried well, something often hard to find with walnut.

You also have to consider movement of the overall panel, whether it is a single piece, laminated in thickness, and/or glued up out of strips, if it is a wide panel of solid wood it will shrink and expand in width over the seasons with changes in humidity. If it is solidly attached at all four corners to a piece like a post with the grain running vertically, with no way to shrink or expand across the width of the grain, it will likely crack or buckle.