Making wider planks

For the first time I need to join some planks of mahogany to make them wider. They are relatively short - up to 650mm and they need to be about

500mm wide.

I have a 12" planer/thicknesser. So I guess I must make the edges flat and square and then apply glue and pressure.

But is that it or should I make a tongue and groove or use one of those router bits that make an interlocking joint. The wood is to be used for a bedside table and thus does not need to be too strong.

Thanks

Reply to
paul
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Yes. I always use glue alone after jointing mating edges. Tage Frid says the same in his book.

-- Cheers! Duke

Reply to
Dukester

I am not sure how you are going to get the edges straight with a planer. You really need a jointer or hand plane.

Once you get the edges straight, just glue will be fine. Spread a thin amt of glue on each edge, and spread out with a small brush. Align and clamp (with just a small amout of squeeze out).

I typically use a biscuit joiner, but that is mainly to make the aligning easier. It is my understanding that today's glues are plenty strong.

dave

Reply to
ClemsonDave

For that, really just gluing together after treatment on the jointer is all you need to do. If any worries about alinement, T&G or Biscuits would not be amiss

John

Reply to
John Crea

Though, in this instance, there is no need for the additional strength, I still apply the fundemental law of all joint making, which is to first have a good mechanical strength. The other reason is that it makes alignment much easier, though you will probably only be joining two comparatively short boards, in the future you may be doing longer and wider.

Depending on the job, I use either an edge interlocking bit or cut blind dados with the table saw and use ply tongues for long/thick boards. Believe me if you ever glue up a table top you need all the help you can get with alignment besides the difficulty of trying to apply corrective upward/downward pressure to a gluey top.

Be aware that if you use an interlocking joint router bit that you need a router table and a means of micro adjusting the cut height.

Bernard R

Reply to
Bernard Randall

If the boards are jointed properly, they will be plenty strong for any purpose with no more than glue, since glue is stronger than the wood itself.

For example, my workbench top is made of 18 3" thick strips of SYP. They are joined by nothing more than glue, yet have withstood all the stresses that a neander bench is subjected to with no signs of separation at all.

Again, get the joint right and you'll have no worries. Get it wrong and all the biscuits, etc. in the world won't help you.

Chuck Vance

Reply to
Conan the Librarian

Other then having the edges not only straight BUT ALSO at 90 degrees to at least one of the faces of each piece (those would end up being the top of the top) nothing further, for strength purposes, is required.

Biscuits, tongue and groove, splines, glue joints, etc are nice but add no meaningful strength to a long grain jointed panel.

Note to those wetting their pants about the "no meaningful strength" part. Don't bother, I'm not going to debate with some anal twit's nit picking. If a properly made, glued, and clamped long grain joint is stronger then the wood it follows that any additional strength, regardless of how added, is, meaningless, redundant, overkill, unnecessary, pointless, purposeless, senseless.

Reply to
Mike G

paul wrote

You do not need tongue and groove, or the interlocking router bit profile, or biscuits, etc. for strength, and they are not normally used to glue up boards into panels. There is lots of info in the archives here re this. Just remember that you will need to translate your search into American-ese tool terminology for good results. The thing you call a planer, we call a "jointer," and your thicknesser is our "planer."

Reply to
Woodstock

Ok, I'm curious. This is a sincere question:

How do bicuits make a joint stronger? If worried about a break *at* the joint, the material of the biscuit should make it stronger *only* if the biscuit material itself is better than the wood and/or the glue. I'm thinking of a shear at the joint. Either the biscuit material is shearing, or the glue/original wood is shearing. So, which really is stronger?

I do use biscuits, but have in mind only some really great assistance in alignment. Other than that, the majority of the material is still original wood and glue. I don't think it matters for strength unless the biscuits are significantly stronger than the original material (metal would work), but usually they are weaker.

Is there a physics/engineering expert here?

Dan.

Reply to
Danny Boy

Must keep the thesaurus handy. :-)

Reply to
KB8QLR

The use of biscuits is not for strength but for alignment...as far as I know, there is no increase in strength with biscuits, but I could be wrong.

Mike

Reply to
The Davenports

Mike, I'm with you for edge gluing. No joinery is required on edge gluing, the joing will not get any stronger.

Reply to
Bruce

Anything that increases glued area does increase the strength of the joint. Simple physics.

In the case of a panel glue up, long grain to long grain, the increase is immaterial. However the increased glue area for something like a butt joint makes a far stronger joint since you have essentially changed the weak butt joint to a M & T joint.

It's all in how you look at it. If your only point of concern is panels, biscuits are nothing more then alignment aids and increased strength, and there is some, never becomes tested since, as you observed, the wood breaks first anyway. It's only when you start applying the added strength to otherwise weaker joints does the issue make sense. Think face frames, shelving, that sort of thing.

Hope it helps

Reply to
Mike G

Thanks. I'm just a hobbyist. Been at it a while, but still have to admire the pros who do it all day every day.

Dan.

Reply to
Danny Boy

The biscuit is actually quite a bit stronger than your wood. The grain of the biscuit is across the biscuit, or at least at a pretty good angle. So you're looking at shear across the grain for the biscuit versus shear with the grain for the joint itself.

In the end, though, they are more useful for aligning the joint than strengthening it - assuming that you have a good fitting joint to start with.

John Martin

Reply to
JMartin957

What's funny is that I know pros who admire some serious amateurs. One guy points out that pros often don't have the time to do the really special stuff, due to financial pressures.

A serious amateur or semi-pro wooddorker can work at it simply for the art. Unless one is one of those lucky folks who doesn't need luxuries like food, shelter, or a dependable vehicle.

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y

I dunno. I couldn't DO any wooddorking without a dependable hauling vehicle. How do people LIVE without a truck/van?

Bill

Reply to
Bill McNutt

Very easy to do. In the past four years I've done WW, I did borrow a truck once to bring home my contractor's saw. The dust collector, 14" bandsaw, planer, router table all came home in my car. As have 2 x 8's and plywood cut into three or four pieces.

I have use of a truck anytime I want it but I don't bother. Just not needed and I'd rather drive a sedan than a truck. Ed

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

The same way I do. With a trailer and a station wagon.

I ditched my last truck a few years back. The upside to the trailer is a low, easily loaded deck, MANY places to lash down an awkward load, low taxes, insurance & registration costs, the trailer can be left on site to be loaded or unloaded, you can tow it with multiple vehicles, and you don't have the truck when you don't want the truck. I tow my trailer with either a Jeep Wrangler Sport or a Subaru Outback.

The Outback is THE BEST snow and foul weather vehicle I've ever touched. I've had 4WD trucks, SUV's you name it. AWD (which operates differently than 4WD), ABS, traction control, a 5 speed stick (NOT an automatic!), and most importantly, a low center of gravity make it all work.. Too bad it's kind of ugly!

The downside is that you're towing a trailer, which does occasionally require some forethought while driving and parking. And, of course, you need to store it.

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y

I was more worried that the "650mm width" would stump all the metrically challenged out there!!

Thank you all for your advice - no prizes for guessing what I will be doing this weekend. Should keep the SWMBO happy since she has had the headboard for a while but no pedestals.

Reply to
paul

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