How Woodworkers Join Wood Together
Woodworking is truly an enjoyable activity. Individuals involved in woodworking can effortlessly create items like shelves, chairs, cabinets, boxes, desks, doors, and even toolboxes simply by utilizing wood. However, beyond your enthusiasm and drive to construct something from wood, it's also essential to arm yourself with certain skills to simplify the task.
One essential technique that woodworkers have is joining woods together using different joining methods. These methods might include the use of nails and screws, dovetails, dowel joints, biscuit joiner tool and glue. If you are exploring and planning to do a project, you might want to stick with these ideas on how woodworkers join wood together.
What are the different wood joining methods and how to do it?
Nails and screws: Using these tools is the most common method in joining wood nowadays. Typically, nails and screws can hold the wood fast, requiring a little movement which might cause tiny cracks on the wood.
Typically, when doing it with nails, you will need a hammer, while you will need a drill for the hole if you use a screw. You can tighten the screw with the use of a screwdriver or an impact driver. Note that you will need to mark the areas you need to nail or screw and fix the two pieces of wood together. Holes also play an essential role in using this method.
Dovetails: This is one of the excellent wood joining techniques in the world of woodworking. One advantage of this method is it provides thorough strength on your project because of its interlocking feature. The ends of the pieces which are called tails and pins are cut and needed to be interlocked to each other to make a stable joint. The tails look like a tail of a dove while the pins are made to fit between the tails.
A great woodworker can produce tight-fitting dovetails which might be hard for novice ones. Likewise, there are different types of dovetail joints such as through dovetail, half-blind dovetail, secret mitered dovetail, sliding dovetail and full-blind dovetail. Deciding which kind of dovetail you will use depends on the function and design you prefer. Providing a cool design is also one of the advantages of the dovetail method.
Dowel joints: This is one of the old school wood-joining methods. This is where two or more round sticks of wood called dowels are inserted into their corresponding holes. Dowels will reinforce the joint between the two adjoining pieces of wood. Likewise, woodworkers use glue to keep the dowels and the woods intact or to avoid separation. But, it is a guarantee that dowels can provide adjacent strength.
In making a dowel joint, it might take little more of your time. Likewise, the dowels might be tricky when aligning it between the woods or the board. Some woodworkers use a tool called dowel jigs to make this joint. A dowel jig can help woodworkers in making perpendicular holes in the end, face or edge of the board. Note that the key to proper and hassle-free alignment is a good jig.
Biscuit joiner tool: Biscuit joinery method where pieces of cut woods called biscuits are glued to the slots cut in the other wood. It is ideal for reinforcing and lining up edges like frames, or cabinet carcasses.
A biscuit joiner tool is used to cut corresponding slots in one of the boards. Meanwhile, a football-shaped wood called biscuit is glued into the slots. All you need to do is to press the boards together and clamp it until the glue finally dries. Once the glue dries, and the biscuit has already expanded, the joint is already secure by that time.
Like in doweling, making biscuit joints might be challenging and requires expertise in using the tool called biscuit plate joiner. This tool is not that expensive, and it will be worth it when you master this technique.
Glue: When using this typical method of joining wood, you should note that construction adhesive is waterproof so it will be useful and convenient for you. There are different adhesives that you might encounter when trying to use glue as your tool in joining wood together.
Carpenter’s glue or also called yellow glue is the primary type of wood glue. One of its clear advantages is that it can stand the test of temperature from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Moreover, if you are looking for the glue that can be used indoor and outdoor, polyurethane glue will be appropriate for you. However, before applying this glue, you need to moist or wet the wood first with a cloth. Apply the glue, and quickly clamp the two boards together for about 24 hours for the adhesive to dry. Clamping will give stability and effectiveness on this method.
Another adhesive is the white glue which is very easy to dry. You might want to use it on lightweight materials only such as leather, paper or some thin pieces of wood. You might need a rubber paint roller to spread the white glue evenly on the surface of your material. After applying the glue, clamp it if your materials are wood and allow an hour for the glue to dry.
When you need to fill gaps in a matched joint which is imperfectly combined, epoxy glue will save the hassle. Epoxy is typically a mix of resin and a hardener. Likewise, it is ideal for spreading a little sawdust on the wood you are about to glue together with the epoxy mixture. The sawdust will help in ensuring that the glue will dry with the same color as the wood.
Note that above all of these, a carpenter’s glue is still the ideal adhesive when you are joining wood to wood.
Whether you are a homeowner or an apartment dweller that would like to explore and craft something new in your home, the above ideas on wood joining will help you a lot. Woodworking is one of the exciting and fashionable tasks you might want to learn. Feel free to explore and give yourself and your home the best shot!
