Ok… having been a woodworker my whole life (thanks dad!) I don’t have a solution to this and am wondering if you awesome people in this group who are smarter than me might.
What do you do to help eliminate warpage when carving out a tray?
I consistently have the problem and can’t figure out a solution (if there is one).
Are you removing an even amount of material from each side?
Photo of the trays in question?
What are the dimensions?
What is the original size of the Stock?
Glued up or single piece?
Moisture content?
Consulted
?
Rough out the pocket to relieve most of the stress, re-flatten, then do the finish cut.
Flatten it in a relaxed state. i.e. don’t clamp it flat if it’s warped.
I put pieces of 2" tape on the spoilboard with a blob of bondo on each spot. Locate the stock, press down, but let the bondo harden with the wood relaxed. Flatten that side, flip, flatten the other side.
I can’t always match the thickness of the wood to the depth of the carving. So I end up with a thin result that warps as soon as I let the clamping pressure loose.
My solution? Wet down the convex side and over-clamp it with a riser underneath. Takes a gentle while, but it works.
Is the wood kilned dried? If so it’s cased. I see that a lot in wood from the hardware stores
No… it’s just been inside for 25 years…
@SirGariff
It was “bone dry” until you opened it up. It depends on what type of milled wood it is? Flat sawn vs Quartersawn. Flat sawn does this more often and easier. Once you mill out the pockets you remove the balance of the grain keeping its self in check. This is usually consistent with the bow as you have on the pocketed side. The lower half will have more stress/movement because it has more grain to induce movement.
If just for me:
Put little rubber feet on the bottom or invert it on a planer sled and plane the bottom.
This happens in almost any material that’s not engineered to stay flat. We will usually start by facing the bottom first, taking off a little material (1/32"-1/16") even if we don’t need to, and then flipping it over and cutting out the rest of the features. Tod’s suggestion is even more effective, but it just takes more time.
Thanks. I’ll definitely try this on the next tray 
For utility trays try bamboo ply. It is very forgiving and stable.
I’ve had better luck using Panel boards that are made up with small boards glued together.
I will try that. In the past for slabs we would rip the boards down and glue them back together for stability. Sounds like the same thing.
Wow! That was a great video.
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