I'm making new slats for my companionway but the widest teak boards that I've been able to purchase are 8 inches. I'll have to glue two pieces edge-to-edge to replicate the sizes of the existing boards. My plan is to use dowels to attach the pieces (I considered biscuits but the Internet consensus seems to be that dowels are stronger, particularly in applications like doors). My question is what glue to use? My research suggests either epoxy (West System, in my case) or a wood glue like TiteBond III. Any recommendations by y'all?
A sticky question...
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What about a scarf joint? And since my joints are never perfect, I like Gorilla glue since it expands to fill in the bad joint.
Any water-proof wood glue should do the job. I've used many, including epoxy and gorilla, but 8in. boards are easier to stow than wider ones. (just a thought)
How thick will your slats be? I think a scarf or lap joint will be stronger.
Maybe use the 8" wide boards but have more slats?
Maybe use the 8" wide boards but have more slats?
Teak is an oily wood that interferes with getting a good bond. I'm not sure the basic wood glues would work. I have used Gorilla Glue and it seems to work well. Wipe the bonding surfaces with some denatured alcohol or acetone to remove the surface oils.
Be considerate of the width. Wide boards shrink and swell more with the season. Not to mean narrow ones won't. The cumulative width of your boards stacked in your companionway guides will show the same effect, but wide boards are more prone to becoming misshappen. They cup. 8" is still very wide.
I use to be an engineer for a furniture manufacturer. The first thing they did with a new load of wood was, rip it all down to 1-1/2" widths and glue it back together. It offers more stability. Watch the end grain and reverse the camber of the growth rings on every other board.
If you are not using plywood, consider capping the ends with a verticle rail. Here is my post on making my companionway hatch board.https://forums.sailboatowners.com/i...atch-boards-very-lengthy-project-post.188874/
If you need to use something like a wafer or dowel for alignment, consider a simple spline. That will be the strongest way.
As far as glue goes, Gorilla or epoxy both work well. Gorilla glue works best with water as both an activator and a sort of flux to help it flow into the grain.
-Will (Dragonfly)
I use to be an engineer for a furniture manufacturer. The first thing they did with a new load of wood was, rip it all down to 1-1/2" widths and glue it back together. It offers more stability. Watch the end grain and reverse the camber of the growth rings on every other board.
If you are not using plywood, consider capping the ends with a verticle rail. Here is my post on making my companionway hatch board.https://forums.sailboatowners.com/i...atch-boards-very-lengthy-project-post.188874/
If you need to use something like a wafer or dowel for alignment, consider a simple spline. That will be the strongest way.
As far as glue goes, Gorilla or epoxy both work well. Gorilla glue works best with water as both an activator and a sort of flux to help it flow into the grain.
-Will (Dragonfly)
I like what you did with your approach. Currently the front runner for my problem. Also now leaning toward a spline as the joining method. Any recommendations for spline material?
If your dead set on it I'd chamfer the edges and the joint line so the seam is hidden and they look like individual boards. Some call this technique veining. Titebond III was made for this type of thing but I'd confirm its us on oily exotics like teak. Prepping the glue surface with a solvent might be called for. I'd love to see the final product.
Personally, I'd half lap each board and not glue- then you can decide how much you need. and or make screens. And MUCH easier to stow. 4 8 inch boards makes a pretty deep set of drops just shy of 32 inches .
Have you considered a material other than teak? I found teak to be 3x the cost of mahogany and difficult to find in widths you would like. Sapele would also be a good choice, its also called African Mahagony. It's reasonably priced and available with a tight grain and finishes nicely and holds up to weather. I just finished new grab rails with Sapele. On another project, I used tennons made out of Sapele set in mortise to make a Sapele table top for the patio.
on seeing the final product. Daviddp, I'd love to see a picture of you're table too.
-Will (Dragonfly)
I’d use a glue joint router bit and tight bond 3. Be sure and use acetone on the joint to reduce the oil that come from the teak.
I'd spline joint it. Dowels aren't very forgiving on thinner stock and for layup. If you know anyone with a Domino, they are the bees knees
Modern glues are much stronger than wood, so dowels or biscuits are long since obsolete unless your bonding end grain. I've got table tops I built 27 years ago, which have been just fine with glue only. I found Titebond to be slightly better than Gorilla Glue. The biggest thing beyond alternating the grain is to clamp it tight. The tighter the clamp, the more you force the glue into the pores so it can grip the wood. I also like to let the glue nearly dry before scraping off the excess. This makes it less likely for the glue to smear, or get pressed into the pores.
Absolutely. Everything Dave said. The spline or dowel or biscuits are only to make alignment easier during gluing. A straight edge-grain to edge-grain glue joint is the strongest. Dowels are not as strong as the other joints because they take that edge-grain to edge-grain surface away around the dowels and thin the effective wood thickness at the dowel hole. After a while, they shrink at a different rate than the surrounding wood causing them to break their glue bond.
End-grain gluing is generally thought of as ineffective. That's why scarf jounts were invented. With modern glues that have structural integrity of their own, resins, for example, end grain gluing is more feasible.
Not an issue here except where you want to glue cap rails to the ends of your boards to help prevent movement and warping of your boards. Then use a spline or tongue-and-groove joint.
-Will (Dragonfly)
+1 for sapele, if you've not already purchased your wood....have used it for many years for exterior doors and boat projects, great alternative...can u spot the tongue & groove glue joint here?
https://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/admirals-galley-12502.185659/
https://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/admirals-galley-12502.185659/
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If you haven't bought the teak, I'd use Sapele or Utile(as it is also called), at about 1/3rd the price and looks great, better than teak when finished(I think). I'd edge glue it with Titebond.
If you use teak, carefully abrade the glueing edges with 80 grit before clamping.
If you use teak, carefully abrade the glueing edges with 80 grit before clamping.