Moistening wood to prevent wood splitting?

[Kev Godwin]

I build small bird feeders and birdhouses as gifts for people and often make some theme bird houses as well. A lot of these assemblies have small decorative pieces of pine, cedar and redwood that are attached with 18 ga brads and 23 ga pins. Sometimes the 18 ga brads split thin pieces when I try to attach pieces near the end grain. Sometimes even connecting the enclosures also is a problem.

My question is twofold. Could I moisten the wood to reduce the times I have problems with splitting with the brad nailer or would I just be better off using a fast setting exterior glue and a couple 23 ga pins instead?

I will say I have had a few problems with a couple bird houses that fractured due to swelling from exterior moisture. Those that fractured were much more heavily glued than the others.

Any recommendations is appreciated. Thanks Creekers.
Kev

[Lee Mitchell]

Just my 2-cents....

I don't think moistening them will help. The wood would have to soak for a while for the fibers to actually absorb much water. As best I know, steaming is what's generally used to make a piece of wood more flexible, thus more forgiving to assault.

For those small pieces my thought is to use a combo of hot glue and regular glue. A spot or 2 of hot glue to hold the piece in place while the regular glue cures.

As to splitting after getting wet, this has more to do with accomodating wood movement than the amount of glue used. (Although spot gluing vs gluing the entire surface, does have a bearing.) Since movement is greater across the width of a board rather than down the length, perhaps you can change the grain direction of your pieces to accomodate this.

Again, just 2-cents, since I don't know what's splitting in relationship to the other pieces.

Lee in NC

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

One other suggestion for the brads splitting the thin pieces is to drill a very small hole then drive the brad into the hole. This is a method used when working with, very old, HARD, woods. The brad/nail still grabs the wood, but doesn't split it.

Bruce

[Mike Henderson]

Design your project for wood movement then use an exterior glue. You can often "clamp" with blue tape to hold the item until the glue sets. If the 23 gauge pins don't split the wood, you could use them, of course, to hold the item until the glue sets.

Mike

[Chip Lindley]

HOT GLUE! and a couple of brads!