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Cocobolo and other related woods, movement..??

D

Doug Rasmussen

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I have some pieces of what I was told by the seller are cocobolo. Others have told me it could be one of many offshoots from rosewood. I guess it doesn't really matter...

The question is does this type tropical wood have the same seasonal movement other woods sometimes have?

The pieces I have are about 1-1/8" thick x 4" wide, not big enough to make end grain boxes. If the wood doesn't move much, my thought is shallow flat grain lidded boxes. One small piece that's been in the house on my desk for a couple years gave an 18% reading on the moisture meter. The wood is hard, it's difficult to get the meter points to go in so I'm not sure that reading is accurate.
 
If it's dry then it is very stable.

A more useful indication of EMC is to weigh the wood using a digital scale that gives an accurate reading in grams. If it weighs the same a month from now as it does today then it is dry. Since cocobolo is dense and resinous it isn't affected much by seasonal changes in absolute humidity.
 
He is asking about movement due to making screw kid boxes. It's fun to know but is so defpendant on where the box lives and where you live that it's really only a guess. Where it is handy is knowing what species not to use.
 
The only woods that don't move are petrified, and stabilized. How much they move depends on the woods. The tropical ones like cocobolo, or lignum, are very oily and tend to move less than some thing like sycamore. For threaded boxes, I don't go more than about 1 1/4 inch diameter. Beyond that you may get too much movement, especially if you move from one climate to another. It is also a good idea to rough turn them first and let them adjust, no matter how 'dry' the wood is supposed to be.

robo hippy
 
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