Make your projects strong Cut some wood, then put it back
together again in new ways. This is woodworking described most
simply, and the “put back together” part sometimes needs
mechanical help. Dowels, biscuits and floating tenons all create
interlocking connections that boost the strength of simple wood
joints beyond what glue alone can deliver. Most of the projects
in this issue of Canadian Home Workshop include joints that rely
on interlocking connections, and making these joints work begins
with an understanding of why glue alone isn’t always enough.
Every brand of wood glue has more than enough strength to join
the edges and faces of boards without mechanical help. In fact,
tight-fitting butt joints involving edges and faces are stronger
than the surrounding wood itself. But if one or both surfaces of
a joint shows annular growth rings, the situation is entirely
different. When growth rings are visible, the surface is called
“end-grain”, and glue-only joints on end-grain are always too
weak to count on.