Glueing 4/4 boards to achieve greater thickness.

[Matt Guyrd]

I have a good bit of rough-cut cherry that range in thickness, mostly 4/4 to 5/4 with a few near 6/4. I am in the process of milling boards for a small table that calls for a finished leg dimension of 1-3/8" square at the top. Legs will be tapered on two sides. Once I mill my lumber, I will be under the 1-3/8" needed.

Short of purchasing a flat 6/4 board (or thicker), is there any reason why I couldn't glue two boards together, long-grain to long-grain, to achieve a thickness that will allow me to mill the legs to proper dimension?

Thanks!
Matt

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

no. it's perfectly sensible.
Use a glue that will last as long as you want the table to last.

[Mike Henderson]

Sure. When I glue up stock for legs, I try to match the grain and color so as to hide the glue line. If you do a good job of matching, it'll be hard to notice that the leg is made of two pieces glued together.

Since you have a taper, I'd try to put the glue line in the middle so that it is not cut by the taper. It's much easier to see a glue line when you view it cut through by a taper. Usually you'll notice discontinuities in the grain where the cut through occurs, which will make the glue up more moticable.

Or put the glue line vertical on the taper so that when you view the taper, the glue line is just a vertical line down the taper. Depends on where you want the glue line - on the front or on the side.

Mike

[Andy Fox]

I always glue up the pieces 1/2" or more wider than the final dimension so that I can easily eliminate any glue stains by trimming or planing.

[Jerry Olexa]

Sure. That'll work. For the bracket feet on my latest project, i needed 6/4 thick cherry. I glued 2 3/4 pcs with TBond 3. Turned out fine. Can't see the line...

[Jim Becker]

Yes, you can do it. TRY to match the color of the boards as close as possible and in addition, try for straight grain that angles, when viewed on the end, at about 45 degrees front to back on the boards. That will give you the maximum masking of the glue joints. Or...buy some thicker material for the legs that is straight grained and also has the angle arrangement mentioned above. That preserves your thinner material for other projects.

[Jamie Buxton]

When I've been caught in your situation, I've mitered long edges on the two boards, and glued them together in an angle-iron shape. On the visible surface, the seam happens at a corner, and that makes it difficult to notice. On the inside faces, the taper gets you down to having short arms on the L near the bottom of the leg, where people may see it. Up near the top, the longer arms on the L are hidden and nobody sees them.

[Alan Turner]

You can do this in the ways suggested above, and strength will not be an issue, but the purchase of leg stock is an option that you might consider. For leg stock, you really do need rift sawn stock so that the adjacent faces of the leg are not in conflict. You can order some rift cut 6/4 or 8/4 stock at not too great an expense. Just a thought.

[Matt Guyrd]

Ahhh shoot! Last night I typed a reply and after submitting I received a "page cannot be displayed" webpage. Hitting the back button, took me back to the reply page, minus my text. I gave up. This morning, at work, the same thing happened. I need to start copying my post to the clip board to preserve the text. I can only think it is because I take too long to post (i.e., walk away in the middle of replying) and my login expires. Anybody experience this?

Anyway...thanks for all your replies. In a nut shell, my failed replies were geared to my thought process in going about orienting the boards to get the best color and grain matching with an effort to conceal the glue line. I am still not clear on how to best approach this, but once I start milling and matching boards, maybe it will be much clearer. I've always been a better doer as opposed to analyzing everything first (something I am guilty of doing too often!).

P. Michael and Jim's posts are a good start for me regarding grain orientation. Is there a "rule of thumb" as to which side the glue lines should be on (sides, or front and back)? Or is it really a matter of artistic design and finding the best way to match wood while concealing the line?

Thanks again! There is never a shortage of methodology from the creeker contingency!

Matt

[Ben Grunow]

I find it helps sometimes to wet the boards you are trying to match to better see their color and grain before glue up. Hope it helps.

[Jim Becker]

Is there a "rule of thumb" as to which side the glue lines should be on (sides, or front and back)? Or is it really a matter of artistic design and finding the best way to match wood while concealing the line?

I would more likely put such a glue joint on the side, rather than the front, but it may be dependent on the piece and how it will be used/displayed. If you use really well matched and oriented material, the joint should be pretty invisible, however. But I do agree with Alan...buying some nice rift-sawn stock just for the legs will provide the best solution.
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As to your posting issue...there are network delays occurring on the links to the Internet from the SMC servers which are causing the time-outs and double posting issues, according to Keith and Aaron. It's out of our control. Your login doesn't really time-out...it's the Internet. The Support Forum usually has threads on access problems...and this one is included.