Cgcc
3rd August 2021, 10:07 PM
So for a little project I decided to grab one of the project panels from bunnings - the FJ oak.
It seemed to be genuine oak which I like working with and is a nice meaty and softer feel to "FU" Australian hardwoods.
When I unpacked the panel, there was a huge split in the panel along a glue-line - not a great start. But I re-glued and clamped and seemed okay.
I decided to get stuck into some dovetailing for the project. Got very close to a tight fit and gave it a bit of a whack to hopefully get a crisp fit.
Split in 3 places along glue lines. Whoie project ruined as I'd cut all the pieces.
498981
I... don't mind admitting that it probably took me 2+ hours to do all those dovetails and get near a good fit.
After I got over the depression, I morosely whacked finished whacking the dovetails in on the broken bits and planed them back just to see how I did. They looked good, I thought, as I placed them in the fire pit. Now my fire pit has my best dovetailed joint to date.
So that is the warning. The glue lines on these panels are not good. Maybe they don't use something suitable for the oak. The split in 2 places can't be a fluke in combinatino with the panel coming apart out of the packaging. I'm sure they would be fine for a rabbeted or suchlike joint but not dovetailing unless you can get it so precise that you don't need test fits.
Chris
It seemed to be genuine oak which I like working with and is a nice meaty and softer feel to "FU" Australian hardwoods.
When I unpacked the panel, there was a huge split in the panel along a glue-line - not a great start. But I re-glued and clamped and seemed okay.
I decided to get stuck into some dovetailing for the project. Got very close to a tight fit and gave it a bit of a whack to hopefully get a crisp fit.
Split in 3 places along glue lines. Whoie project ruined as I'd cut all the pieces.
498981
I... don't mind admitting that it probably took me 2+ hours to do all those dovetails and get near a good fit.
After I got over the depression, I morosely whacked finished whacking the dovetails in on the broken bits and planed them back just to see how I did. They looked good, I thought, as I placed them in the fire pit. Now my fire pit has my best dovetailed joint to date.
So that is the warning. The glue lines on these panels are not good. Maybe they don't use something suitable for the oak. The split in 2 places can't be a fluke in combinatino with the panel coming apart out of the packaging. I'm sure they would be fine for a rabbeted or suchlike joint but not dovetailing unless you can get it so precise that you don't need test fits.
Chris