Thoughts on FG butt joints
Building a Michalak Larsboat, and using FG butt
joints.
One 2" strip of 6oz on each side of the 5mm
Lauan.
Did my standard break test on a piece of the
scrape to get the warm fuzzies... It snapped at the FG joint! Repeated the test,
and it broke in the wood.
Recalled an email conversation with someone awhile
back where he said all his testing with FG butt joints, the joint would snap the
glass.
Repeated the experiment numerous times and made the
following observations, which may be of interest to the group.
1) If the two supporting points, and the pressure
point, are ALL inside the bounderies of the FG/wood sandwitch, the joint will
break apart at the butt.
2) if one or both of the supporting points are
OUTSIDE the bounderies of the FG/wood laminate, it will break in the wood where
there is no FG.
After reflection, this is obvious. The weakest part
of the FG/wood laminated section is the butt joint. However, even this weak area
is stronger than the unlaminated wood.
So, the joint is stronger than the wood, and the
person who reported them breaking all the time was probably applying pressure
ONLY in the laminated section.
Comments?