Why are my wrapped panels shrinking?

[blackat]

I make leather wrapped architectural wall panels. I take mat board as used for picture frames and wrap them with 1/16" thick finished leather then stitch the perimeter as a detail.

On a recent project, after I installed with contact adhesive they shrunk revealing a 1/8" gap between the panels on the wall. They were tight to each other when I left them for a couple days.

Anyone know why this happens?

[stelmackr]

Veg tanned stuff I make shrinks after wetting, tooling, coloring and finishing, but it sounds like you are using chrome tanned finished leather which should retain its size unless exposed to moisture (Maybe gluing the leather with acrylic, water based glue to the matte boards) Or exposure to high heat or bright lighting.  That's my guess.

 

Bob Stelmack

[fredk]

I'm thinking it sounds like water/moisture evaporation shrinkage in an exceptionally dry environment. The boards, before covering, and the leather might have needed a week, or even more, in that environment for them to shrink and stabilise. In they way even dry timber needs to be in its end use environment to stabilise

[blackat]

Thanks. The contact adhesive is water based but I was thinking the mat boards are stable enough.

I typically use 3/8" MDF which doesn't move.

Also, I am in CO where the humidity is 7%-ish.

 

[fredk]

If I may give a similar but reverse situation. N.I. has an average of 80% humidity and 12* C [53* F]

I had to make and cover interior panels for a vintage car. The older ones [not vintage, but old] were taken off and I cut new panels out of hardboard exactly to the same size. Then they were covered in upholstery leather using contact glue. At every stage the size of the panels was checked, by measure and by placement. This work was done in the spring. The panels were put into an empty office near the car being rebuilt, adjoining the garage workshop.  When it came to fitting the panels early in the winter almost all of them were too big. I measured them, all too big. We put the panels into a heated office for a month and they shrunk back to their original size. In those few months the hardboard had absorbed enough extra atmospheric moisture for them to expand

[blackat]

Thanks.