Butting boards together

[Rick Albright]

I'm in the process of butting or joining two boards together, should I join them together first and fill in the gaps or is there an adhesive/filler that I can use that I could use and not use the filler later?:)

[Art Mann]

Are you talking about end to end or edge to edge?

[glenn bradley]

Either way, for PVA glue to do a good job the surface should mate well and be smooth. PVA glue does not have good gap filling properties in general but, they do make high-solids formulas that do better than regular PVA. A pic of what you are trying to join will get you better answers.

[Steve Schoene]

End to end joints are much more difficult to make and not used very much since longer boards are fairly readily available. To join boards end to end requires mechanical strength though such things as pocket screws or or splines or specialized joints such as scarf joints. Joining boards side to side to make a wider panel is by far the more common kind of joinery.

In either case, the joints should be shaped so there are NO gaps, not even enough to leave a visible glue line. If there is a glue line, let alone a "gap", it wasn't done right. The joint can be checked by doing a dry assembly in front of a light or window. If you can see light, the joint isn't precise enough.

[andy bessette]

Join them with a scarph joint.

[Chris Schoenthal]

If it is end-to-end, you could also use dowels to strengthen.