Straightening Warped Wood

We have been working on a big Armoire restoration project for a little while now.   It is a very old french piece and one of the side panels has warped to the point that the armoire can't be assembled properly.  So before we move on with the project, we needed to straighten it out.    This process is done while the wood is damp, and so more pliable.  

To straighten the piece out, we laid the side panel down on our low workbench and clamped to long pieces of wood tightly down each side to create a trough.  Then, between these long 'fences'  we placed short pieces of wood horizontally.  We clamped all of this snugly down onto the workbench using several very long clamps.

The side panel will stay like this until it is completely dry.  Then we will take all the clamps off and check to see if it has straightened out.  If it has, then great!  If it has not, then we will have to re-wet the wood and go through the process again.

Just a little educational post today.  I hope you enjoyed it!