laminating a weight supporting mahogany faced post
docflyboy
| Posted in Assign An Expert For Me on
I am doing a remodel of a 60’s style ranch home that I’m milling mahogany trim for. The plans call for a weight supporting 8 x 8 in the center of the entry/living room. I want to face this with mahogany and have a solid post rather than using a steel post and wrapping it with 3/4″ mahogany. I’d like to use a dry select douglas fir post and then vacuum bag mahogany around this, but don’t want to have dissimilar expansion with humidity to cause cracking. Is Doug fir a good choice or would laminating plywood be better as a weight supporting core. What glue would be best and is there a glue with a little give for expansion.
Replies
You would do much better to separate out the support and trim functions, use an inner post to support the load and install a box around it for looks. There is nothing gained by attaching the mahogany to the inner post and a lot of drawbacks.
"Laminating plywood . . . as
"Laminating plywood . . . as a weight supporting core" makes me nervous. The post is needed for structural support, so you need to make sure the post material meets codes and will stand up to the loads. I can't imagine a site laminated plywood "post" would meet code. My personal expectation (no experience) is that a veneered doug fir 8x8 will crack/split. I'd think you'd save time and frustration installing a doug fir post and then wrapping later with solid mahog.
I completely agree with John's assessment - there's nothing at all to be gained by glueing the mahogany to the inner post. Just a lot of work and heartache later on. Make the mahogany box a loose fit around the post, and put some RTV between them just to keep it from rattling around.
Thanks a lot
I found a lamabeam 6x 6 post that's rated for the weight it will support and like the idea of RTV or similar in a space between the mahogany and the engineered lumber. I think I'll probably use a notched trowel and construction adhesive with about a 1/4 or 3/8" bigger inside dimesion of the mahogany wrap than the engineered lumber and biscuit the corners. Thanks for the comments.
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