<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On 19, Nov 2006, , at 14:16, Farrell wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21.36px; "></SPAN><DIV style="font-size: 21.36px; "><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21.36px; ">I think it is well accepted that a grain-end butt joint is likely the weakest way to join two pieces of wood. I have a project in my shop that required 8-foot long boards of an exotic wood. The longest I could </SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21.36px; ">find anywhere were 4 feet long. So I bought two 4-foot-long boards. Epoxy man used epoxy magic to make the two 4-footers into an 8-foot long board. I simply end-butt jointed two boards together to make the longer board via the two-step West System bonding method. </SPAN></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>Obviously this is working for you. A suggestion for increasing the surface area of the glued</DIV><DIV>surface, and possibly thereby the strength, would be to cut matching V-shaped kerfs fairly</DIV><DIV>deeply into the joint-end pieces and then glue that. Requires some precision to make the</DIV><DIV>cuts; I'm sure there's a tool out there somewhere that does this as I've seen the jointing</DIV><DIV>using this in rafters and other rough construction.</DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>