Small update. Remember how I had tacked the back halves to a frame to help re-align them?
Well, once they were separated, the halves twisted about like so many pringles and try as I might, I found it was impossible to re-align them nicely. But I have learned a thing or two about the process!
So I have now decided to start from square one, back to flat plates as the builder would have done, re-join them, possibly with a 1-2mm centre strip if necessary, then re-brace with a slight dish across the plates, and then re-bend the break.
For the moment, I've been using heat, sandbags and pressure to flatten the plates on a formica worktop. Its very humid here in Sydney at the moment - almost tropical - midsummer and warm, sticky with bucketing rainstorms and hail. the end of La Nina apparently. So not glueing weather or varnishing weather, but flattening seems to be going OK.
this stage is not very picturesque, but I'll post pics if you want.
(edit: here are pics of flattening. It will take a while. I'm using a heat blanket to flatten each plate zone by zone.)
After the assembly has cooled down, there is still a bunch of moisture left in the wood that can't escape through the silicone blanket, so i clamp the whole plate flat under a frame overnight or longer.
