<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Thanks Del. I was still talking about edge gluing. I would not advocate joining two pieces end to end in a soundboard situation. Never crossed my mind. I was thinking of a stronger joint, more surface area between the boards. I guess I should abandon the extra strength idea from what you write here. If butt glue joints are among the strongest you can make then perhaps I should stick with these. Has anyone ever tried gluing up 2 boards first, then adding one at a time until the desired panel size is achieved? I know there it is added time involved but it does allow you to concentrate on one glue joint at a time. The jig I usually use for gluing up panels is <i>supposed </i>to add pressure from the top and bottom as well as the sides. I have had less than stellar success with this jig. I'm thinking of doing one joint at a time to give me more control over the overall outcome without the necessity of a BFS (Big Fine Sander). Can anyone suggest a better approach or a way I could perhaps tune this jig to more usability? <p>Delwin D Fandrich wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style> <blockquote dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000080 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----</div> <div style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><b>From:</b><a href="mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net" title="gnewell@ameritech.net">Greg Newell</a></div> <div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org" title="pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a></div> <div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> January 14, 2002 2:50 PM</div> <div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> Re: my own Soundboard</div>  Oh Del, do elucidate before I mercilessly butcher some poor unsuspecting tree. ;-) Seriously, I don't want to waste wood. What will happen with a finger joint in Sitka. BTW where can I get some Sitka? <p>Greg</blockquote> <div dir="ltr"><font color="#000080">If you're considering fingerjoints to butt two pieces of the stuff together the right type of finger joint will work. But I assume you're talking about edge gluing here.</font></div> <div dir="ltr"><font color="#000080">Sitka spruce is pretty nasty stuff to machine cleanly when you get down to small thicknesses and shapes. With any edge shape as extreme as a fingerjoint of normal slope would result in the wood peeling, stripping out, compressing, breaking off, and otherwise generally self-destructing.</font></div> <div dir="ltr"><font color="#000080">And jointing of this type is also unnecessary. The flat edge gluing (assuming properly prepared surfaces) of vertical grain boards is about as strong a joint as you're going to get. Using any reasonable adhesive the flat face-to-face joint is going to be stronger than the wood itself. So, any shape you use is going to be there for other reasons. In this case it is for board alignment. These are pretty long boards to work with and we're trying to edge-glue a fairly large panel here. The joint shape--of whatever type--is there only to aid us in aligning the boards so that we can use thinner stock at the time of lay-up leaving us with less to thickness plane and/or sand away.</font></div> <p dir="ltr"><font color="#000080">The biggest problem with any joint shape is that when we thin out the edges (assuming this is done in some area, usually around the bass end of the board) and cut into the joint shape the glueline takes a twist. If the edge shape is abrupt this can be some unsightly.</font> <p dir="ltr"><font color="#000080">Del</font></blockquote> -- <br>Greg Newell <br><A HREF="mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net">mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net</A> <br>  </body> </html>