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Basic woodworking joints

The main aim when jointing any pieces of timber together should be to cut the joints and arrange them so as to weaken the pieces of timber as little as possible. When the connection is effected entirely by means of timbers fitted together, it is called a joint. Most commonly, however, the joint is strengthened and secured by fastenings, such as: wedges, glue, draw pins, pins, screws, nails, etc. In nearly all cases simple joints are more effective than complicated joints.

Woodworking joints can be divided into four main classifications that correspond to their functions:
joints in length for increasing the lengths of timber, joints in width for increasing the width of timber and angle joints.

Joints in length

This type of joint is used where the required length of timber is unavailable. The four main types are:
Scarf joints, Laminated joints, Heading joint and Handrail bolt.

Joints in width

This type of joint is used to form wider boards for say work/counter tops, cabinet work or shelving or to enable narrow boards to cover larger areas such as flooring or cladding.

Angle joints

This group of joints is a broad one and covers a large variety of joints, such as mitre joint, mortice and tenon, dovetailing, housing, bridle, etc.

Hinging and shutting joints

These types of joints are as used in windows and doors

In our next post we shall be looking at Angle joints.

Tags: joining timber, mortice and tenon, woodworking joints

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 12:24 and is filed under Tips and tricks, woodworking joints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.