Spline Joint?

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sxlalan

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Hopefully this will be the last question required to finish off the cot I am building :roll: (thanks for everyone’s help/patience!). I have the basic cot finished now and just need to attach a hardwood frame around the top (primarily just for looks). The frame consists of 60mm x 21mm lengths of beech which will run around the entire top of the cot (roughly 1400mm x 700mm). The frame needs to be connected to the cot itself somehow, and in the absence of a biscuit cutter I was contemplating a spline joint. The cot itself is made of poplar and the pieces in question (the rails along the sides of the cot and the top of the head/footboards) are also 60x21mm so the connection will be something like this

spline.gif


I am thinking of using my router to cut a 6mm wide, 10mm deep groove along each piece and inserting a matching piece of ply as the spline. Does this sound reasonable? The beech and the poplar are joined long grain to long grain so do I have to worry about expansion or can I get away with a spline glued along the whole length of each piece? Is 10 mm a reasonable depth and am I OK to put a single long spline in (eg for the whole length of the joint) or am I better off with multiple small splines?

Thanks for your help ... I'll post some photos when it's done!

Alan
 
Alan
That sounds fine to me-although if it is long grain to long grain you really shouldn't need to re-inforce it. That is the strongest bond when gluing wood together.
Cheers
Philly :D
 
Wot say you to putting a biscuit cutter in your router, cutting continuous trenches along the edges of your timber and gluing in some of those LLLLOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG 'biscuit'/splines sold at a number of outlets?
 
Thanks guys.

Sammie, I don't have a biscuit cutter but have a 1/4" straight bit so was going to go with that.

Philly, I was just worried that with the beech forming a frame around the top it is likely to get leant on quite a bit. Is the general consensus that glueing alone should suffice?

Cheers

Alan
 
sxlalan":yvv1ftdb said:
...snip..Philly, I was just worried that with the beech forming a frame around the top it is likely to get leant on quite a bit. Is the general consensus that glueing alone should suffice?

..snip..

As long as you can clamp the pieces true to each other without the assistance of the splines, & with even pressure along their length I would suggest that a modern adhesive will as Philly says, be as strong if not stronger than the wood itself.

Have you a couple of short sections of scrap that you can glue up to prove the point to yourself?
 
sxlalan":cuztowbn said:
Hi Chas

..snip..Are we talking PVA here or something else?
..snip..

Fine as far as I am concerned, others will soon let us know if I'm wrong.
I have yet to part a joint made with it whithout tearing darn great splinters off one piece or other of the wood.

See Here for some general info. on adhesives and for a Forum Thread by Chris Waterhead on the subject.
 
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