Hi All,
I have a question regarding joinery, but first I need to give some background on why I’m asking it, so please bear with me.
I started woodworking when I was 14 in shop class at school, and fell in love with it. I took it every day for 4 years, until I went to college. Fast forward 7 years, I now have a house and my own equipment, and have assembled a nice little shop for myself. The problem is that wood is not cheap. I can afford to buy finished plywood or roughcut if I need to, but I decided that I want to try something out – to make some projects from totally repurposed furniture.
I live in a college town, so just going to and from work (a 3-mile drive) I normally find 3-5 dressers/desks/small shelves per week that are a little rough around the edges, but absolutely perfect to be taken apart, jointed, planed, and sawn down, and turned into nice squared-up stock. I’ve assembled quite a nice stock pile of boards, mostly 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick, and ~6-8″ wide and 10-40″ long. My first project is a bookshelf, and it’s going fairly well. It’s 33″ wide, and the top, bottom, and shelves have been easy as pie and come out looking awesome from edge joining boards. Here’s where the problem and my question come into play – how do I go about obtaining longer panels?
I know what you’re thinking – stop being cheap and just buy on finished sheet of plywood, and you’re right, this would be the simplest solution. However, I really want to finish this project out of 100% recycled wood just for the satisfaction of making something from repurposed material. Keeping in mind that end-joining isn’t the strongest option for a 16″ x 66″ panel, I have a few ideas, and I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts on them. Keep in mind, I’d be trying to end-join panels 16″ x roughly 40″ and 16″ by roughly 30″ to get my desired length.
1. Stagger boards in a grid-brick pattern so that I’m joining the boards ~75% through edge joinery and ~25% through end joinery.
2. Use end joinery just by gluing, considering that (I think) it will still be strong enough for this application because this shelf (or shelves) will be used to display a few things, not weight down with 500 lbs. of books.
3. End join boards using box joints to increase strength.
4. Use my Kregg Jig and join with pocket holes (not sure this would be very strong for this application).
5. If all above fails, wait until I find some tall bookshelves on the side of the road.
To everyone who made it this far, THANK YOU! I am so excited to get back into this hobby. I’ve dreamt of having a workshop for such a long time, and even used to think that I would become a high school woodshop teacher.
Any advice is appreciated!!
-Rob from Pennsylvania.
Replies
Rob I think with all the reclaimed wood you have you should experiment on different strength tests yourself. The reason I say this is because you need to have confidence in YOUR construction methods. Say if you should build a shelf, hang it on the wall, load 500 pounds of books on it and then it breaks? What then? Safety First.
Rob, If I understand your post correctly, you are able to edge join boards to get the width you need but, you then need the resultant panels to be longer. Try reversing your process. End join the individual planks together to get an adequate length (add a little excess for later trimming). Joint the resulting edges. Then edge glue your longer planks to make your panel. This way, you can stagger the end joints to provide more strength.
To make the end joints, the easiest and probably the strongest will be a shiplap. second would be a spine. Don't make a plain butt joint; particularly with plywood. If you are using plywood, even your edge joints may be suspect. I would recommend splines there as well.
Keep in mind that, if you don't like the way it looks fter your panel is completed, you can use it as a substrate for plastic laminate or wood veneer.
One last suggestion: A lot of the wood you find in discarded furniture is cheap particle board. Don't try to reuse it except for utilitarian purposes.
Thanks for the replies! I will certainly try a few different methods as suggested and see if they stand up to the test.
As for making longer boards first and then edge joining, I hadn't thought of that. Also hadn't thought of making the ship lap joints. I was just going to butt join the but thought it wouldn't be strong enough, which I'm getting the sense is true.
As for the particle board, I only re-purpose solid wood. MDF and Plywood I just use for jigs or to burn.
Thanks for the answers so far!
Boat builders need to create longer boards anytime they want a plank longer than the 8 feet in a piece of plywood or rough cut cedar or pine available at the mill. Use a scarf joint in a 6:1 ratio (or longer) using a plane or belt sander. There are multiple examples on the web. I make mine by clamping one board over another, back 6-10 inches from the end, then planing a wedge. The two pieces can be glued with good strength.
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