maybe why
Bill Tindall, E. TN
>The practice you are following is not widely used, so given its inconvenience, it would be worth examining why you have found it necessary and try to cure the cause, rather than continuing to endure the inconvenience.
Lumber moves as a result of stress relief, or change in moisture content.
Stress can be present in lumber as a result of improper kiln drying, or bad luck during proper kiln drying. Encountering it should be a rare occurance. If stress is present the change in shape will be nearly immediate upon sawing or planning. The piece may cup, bow or twist. No amount of "conditioning" will reverse what happened. Hence, stickering is no cure or benefit for this situation.
Changes in moisture- Moisture gain or loss which is greater on one side of a board reletive to the other will cause cup. I have never see it cause twist or bow. This cup is normally reversable if the moisture on the two sides are brought to the same value. A "wet" board placed on the bench of a "dry" shop will, within a day, cup up, or visa versa. Stickering will lessen this event, but there may be other more convenient fixes. I just don't see much of this problem when working kiln dried lumber. (My lumber is stored outside in a lumber shed and the shop is humid in the summer (60+%) and dry in the winter (40%).) If you are working air (not thoroughly) dried lumber then I can see where extra measures will be called for. The convenient solution is to obtain dry lumber and store it under conditions not wildly different from shop. In this case any cup that might occur on a 6 to 8" board will be very small, so small that I don't worry about it.
Many fret needlessly about minor cup. Suppose one is glueing a table top 20" wide. Sitting around it cups up 1/4", or even 1/2". This is not something to worry about. A top this wide is quite flexible and normal table top fastening to the table frame will flatten it and keep it flat. Panels for panel doors are another matter as there isn't much hold them flat. Now that you reminded me, I do set these on end or sticker to keep air on both sides until they are installed.
Under the bed is a great place to store parts for work in progress.