Been sold bowed lengths of frame. OK to use?

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Nick O

Grumbler in Training
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Jan 30, 2025
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Hello all.

New here. Hi!

I'd be very grateful if you could offer some advice on acceptability (or not) of being sold bowed mouldings. I just bought 80m of float frame (approx 4cm by 5cm). About a quarter of the delivery is badly bowed (I'd say a 5cm 'differential' on a 3m length of the frame). Before I cut it and discover whether it's usable or not I'd like to get an opinion on whether it should be sold in this condition. My feeling is not but then I am relatively new to the game. The mouldings are from a reputable company in Melbourne, Aus.

As I say, would be very grateful for any thoughts.

Cheers,

Nick
 
Hi Nick, and welcome to the G.
I would certainly have a conversation with the supplier. If they are as reputable as you say, they will replace the bowed pieces and take the issue to the manufacturer.
It is unlikely you will be able to successfully cut and join those.
 
That happens very frequently. No, you shouldn't use it and yes, you should get credit for all the bad moulding.
 
Depends. Sometimes when you buy moulding by the box you have to accept some flaws apparently (as one of my reps told me way back when). If you got a very good deal on it, the supplier might not take back individual lengths

As for cutting it; you usually can't get a good warp free frame out of it but sometimes you can cut around the worst of the warps. If it's twisted as well, forget about it
 
Hi all,

Thank you very much for those swift and really helpful responses.

Based on your points my view is that I got a decent enough deal on the mouldings but not - as far as I am concerned - so good that a quarter should be unusable. I'll send them a photo of the dodgy ones and make my case.

Must say that the forum has been a great resource generally. So again, thanks for all.

Cheers,

Nick
 
5cm across 3 meters?
While that is annoying, that is less than 2%.

You shouldn't have to deal with it, but this is wood. Changing humidity can cause things to change.
If you are in a hurry, returns add time to the project.

If we notice a warp when the mouldings come in, we will usually ask for a replacement.
If we don't notice until it is on the saw, then it probably isn't very warped.

Twisted moulding is always bad.
 
Hi there,

Thanks for your reply.

I mean by the 5cm that this is the 'gradiant' of the warping. Ie the entire 3m length is bowed with up to a (gradually increasing) 5cm dip at either end.

It renders the whole 3m not entirely straight. So my beef is that the whole length is potentially unusable - and their are several like that.

Cheers,

Nick
 
Worst thing about bowing is that over a fairly long length, say over a yard, you can "bully" it into joining decently enough. However, this bowing will exert a steady pull on the mitre which may well lead to it gapping over time. This is quite likely on floats which tend to be pretty skinny without a great glue area to hold things together.
 
Floater frames have their own special challenges since it is critical to get the rails of the frame parallel with the rails of the stretchers.
Another issue is that the stretchers, unlike strainers, offer no structural integrity, so they can't be used to pull a warped frame into line any more that a straight floater can pull a wonky stretched piece back into line.
Nick O said:
I mean by the 5cm that this is the 'gradiant' of the warping. Ie the entire 3m length is bowed with up to a (gradually increasing) 5cm dip at either end.

It renders the whole 3m not entirely straight. So my beef is that the whole length is potentially unusable - and their are several like that.
Click to expand...
Are you saying that there is an overall bowing of 10cm/4" one end to the other? That's almost 1/2" per foot.
There's really no way to correct that much warp. I would be hesitant at half that.
 
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