Q: I'm trying to make very approximate calculations to determine what pull would be necessary to shear bridges from the tops of musical instruments. Different-sized instruments have different area bridges and different sets of string tensions, of course. Do you have such information available to you?

Q: We are getting a lot of warp in the panels that we make. Sometimes it happens right away when we try and plane the panel; other times it takes a few days. It is mostly cup type warp. I checked the MC and it is always 7 to 8 percent MC. What is the problem?

Q: I have some cypress outdoor furniture that I made and now I am getting a few complaints from customers that there are some substantial cracks in the arms and other flat surfaces. Can you help with this?

Q: Can I test some kiln-dried hard maple lumber to determine if the lumber was dipped in an anti-stain chemical when the wood was green?

Q: We use a long, slender piece of wood (pool cue) that must be perfectly straight and stay straight. How can we do this?

Q: How close can you equalize lumber in a kiln? We have one customer that is asking for every piece in the load to be between 6.7 percent and 7.2 percent moisture content. Is this reasonable? We are drying cherry, hard maple, red oak and a few other hardwoods. Most is 4/4 and 5/4.

Q: I am thinking about taking my dry wood waste and compressing it into firewood logs. Perhaps there are some other uses for this material that are more profitable? Can you suggest a reference to look at?

Q: I find your column very useful, and I hope you are well. We manufacture inexpensive kitchen cabinets with mitered flat-panel doors, and we have recently had a serious problem with warping hard maple doors. We purchase the mouldings in random length, and check moisture with an expensive pin-type moisture meter. The pieces generally indicate an MC of 8 to 10 percent. When we build, finish and ship doors to low-humidity environments, many of the doors warp over a period of a few weeks. What causes the doors to warp? What can we do to minimize or eliminate this problem? What moisture content should we specify for our incoming mouldings? Thank you for your advice.

Q: What is the difference between quarter-sawn, rift-sawn, and quarter and rift lumber?

Q: I have recently launched a problem-solving effort that is focusing on small surface cracks and glue joint cracks in our final product. Most of what I have read takes me to the kiln drying process; however, we do not dry lumber and we receive material in several different species from domestic and overseas suppliers. I am looking for a method to understand what causes these failures to better establish moisture content tolerances on our incoming material. Our raw material warehouse and plant both have a humidification system. Material generally is turned over within 10 days after receipt. Oftentimes, I do not see the cracks until after finishing. I am also subjecting the material to convection heat in the finishing process - is this a factor? As we have several variables within our process, what would the best approach be to establishing incoming tolerances and/or internal controls that protect us from splits?