wood support stiffener?

[keith ouellette]

Say you have 5/4 in thick pine 30 to 50 in long and you wanted it to be a little stiffer.

Would having a piece of 3/4 plywood 1 and 5/8" wide glued and screwed along the side of the 5/4 pine make much difference?

I have heard plywood will not flex or bow along its edge. Is it true to a point.

[Greg Heppeard]

Can you make a T? I have made very stiff bed slats that way. I just made a dado along the piece and inserted a 1 1/2" piece with glue and screws.....I could almost stand in the middle of a 5' x 6" piece.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Keith

That should work. Plywood on its edge can be very strong and rigid. Have you ever seen how a header is made during the framing phase of a building. Plywood is sandwiched in between the 2x stock for extra stiffness. Plywood is also laminated into beams for roughing.

I would dado the board out 3/4" wide by 1/2" deep. Then glue the piece of plywood in the groove.

Hope that helps.

Quinn

[glenn bradley]

Sounds like you have your answer. Now let me add a little something in the hopes that you will learn from my mistakes. When dadoing long boards I (now) prefer to use a router. If the board just so happens to not be perfectly flat, the router will follow the contour of the surface and provide a consistent depth of cut. If you use the TS and a dado stack the depth could be different as the "non-perfectness" of the board's face passes over the table. The smaller router plate will conform to the "non-perfectness" more-better.

[keith ouellette]

Thanks. I thought it would help.