How wide a span can you glue wood cross grain

[Dave Cohen]

I'm making a wine rack, and i want glue the strips on to hold the glasses on the underside of the wine rack with the grain running 90 degrees to the length of the wood above which will hold two bottles.

So basically what I have is a longer piece to hold the bottle which is a little bit wider than a bottle lets say 6", and then on the underside strips with their grain running 90 degrees to the top which are 6" long....is this doable or do I need to float and not glue those 6" long strips or is this so short a distance that it doesn't matter?

Thanks

[Frank Drew]

Dave,

Different wood species move more or less, so it's difficult to say if the potential movement in 6" will pop your glue joints; I'd probably reinforce, or replace, the glue with a couple of screws, in a bit from the ends so that you don't too greatly restrict the shelf's crossgrain movement.

[Lee Schierer]

As noted in the first post, wood movement may cause problems either with the strips coming loose or the wood cupping. Mount your suspension strips in dove tailed grooves or with screws in small slots (elongated holes)

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Lee...build with wood movement in mind and you don't have to worry about it.