Spline question

[Michael Hammers]

Hello,
I am going to FINALLY get in the shop this weekend to glue up a piece I have been working on for awhile. I am gluing up 16/4 walnut into a 18 inch slab that is 96" long. Should I groove and spline this. I have never made a piece this substantial, so I have read and observed other pieces. Some folks do and some folks don't. Any suggestions?

[Chris Friesen]

The spline doesn't give you any extra strength, but it can help with alignment. Of course, if your stock is milled foursquare then there likely won't be any alignment issues...

[Michael Hammers]

I have to admit to not being a true neander :mad: on this part of the construction. These pieces came from a tree downed in a storm in 1982. Then they were rough cut origionally for fireplace mantles and air dried till now in a nice old barn. I was given the pieces and used my friends portable sawmill to take them down to reasonable size. (6"x6"x9') I then had a friends millworks shop take them to 4" heigth and to whatever width possible on each of the 6 pieces giving me aprox. 18" four squared.
The rest of the piece i am using hand tools on for most of it though.:cool: I have to acquiesce to my weakness in dealing with such large pieces. A little of it is intimidation and alot of it is a bad back.
:(

[James Mittlefehldt]

Purely a matter of my curious nature Michael, but what are you making with that?

I got for a very good price a bunch of white ash about 13 quarters thick, which I used for my workbench. I did not mill it by hand though, my friendly purveyor of wood flattened it and planed it etc. and it ended up at aboout 9/4's.

William Morris when he made furniture usually had the grunt work done by machine, and saved the hand stuff for dovetails and such, so you appear to be in good company.

[Michael Hammers]

James,
This is indeed for my workbench! I started this awhile ago but back surgery and rehab have kept me away from it till now.
I am copying the Dunbar style from FWW to an extent. I am also robbing the Holtzapffel Workbench base Chris S. came up with.
I am really excited about having a good hand tool bench. I have been using a sturdy mdf bench with a behemoth tucker on the end for three years and no real way to hold anything for handplaning.
By the way, handplaning is great therapy! I use it as rehab!:D

[Bruce Collins]

A good yellow glue should be enough. Make sure you joint the edges so they are flat and are not trying to pull the joint together. I bought some spendy Bessemer clamps and have had great luck gluing panels with them. With my old bar clamps, the panel would not end up flat.

Good luck,
Bruce

[Bob Smalser]

Please don't use Titebond on anything that thick. Use marine epoxy if the M/C is below 12% EMC, PL Premium Poly Construction Adhesive if it's over 12%. And make sure you match the grain, ie, qsawn face against qsawn face.

Thick stock is more prone to delamming because of imperfect grain, its size, and the attendant increased forces on the glueline as it moves seasonally. Aliphatic glues both creep under force and can't be repaired should anything eventually delam. Epooxy is flexible and repairable. Plus Titebond has too short of an open time for large glueups. So does PL, so wait for a cool day. Epoxy you can control the open time with a slow-set hardener.

[Michael Hammers]

Bob, I work for an industrial supply company and I perused the catalog for what you are describing. Closest I can find is in a caulking type dispenser but it is PL Adhesive. I thought this would almost be to thick? Maybe not though... I am taking it you have used this before? My MC is over 12%...

[Bob Smalser]

Bob, I work for an industrial supply company and I perused the catalog for what you are describing. Closest I can find is in a caulking type dispenser but it is PL Adhesive. I thought this would almost be to thick? Maybe not though... I am taking it you have used this before? My MC is over 12%...

Home Depot here carries PL Premium. PL make a lot of poly products, but the adhesive I tested for submersion and repairability was Premium. It's about 3 bucks a tube, and I've been making exterior doors with it. Glad you asked, because Titebond is iffy at over 12% EMC, too....too much moisture = weak joints with anything but poly, which 've used with success up to 30% EMC....although wet = weak with poly, too, just not as badly.