Oak surfaces...

[jack]

Looking to box up some kit I've built, and it so happens I have some nice kiln-dried oak available (offcuts from our floorboards) and a planer-thicknesser...

...the obvious thing is to make the box out of oak (too obvious), so I was wondering about using it for the top plate of the amp, as in:



My concern, of course, is that the heat from the valves will cause shrinkage & cracking in the top plate - kiln-dried oak is between 8% and 12%, but I know from people who've used solid oak flooring in kichens with an Aga, that even kiln-dried oak can crack if too warm... especially if its been machined down to 7mm or so...

I really like the look of this - a departure from the norm...

Thoughts?

[simon]

Interesting question. I've no direct experience but have screwed some oak to the sides of a Hammond black coated steel chassis in the past. It's not quite the same as the heat is much reduced but for what it's worth it's never split.

[pre65]

Could you mix the oak with an aluminium plate.

I had an amp with a ply chassis and alloy plate.

[jack]

Could you mix the oak with an aluminium plate.

Could do, but the point was to have an oak top plate (or at least an oak decorative top plate of the chassis...) rather then the more usual metal top plate...