Quote:
Originally Posted by
Stuart
As Peter says - they are not designed to swell like biscuits, which start off life actually being compressed for that reason.
However the domino will absorb moisture from the glue and swell, but I'm guessing that is only temporary once the moisture dissipates, the domino will roughly shrink back to its nominal size. The biscuit on the other hand, starting off compressed, once uncompressed with moisture will not return to original compressed size, providing a permanent extra mechanical strength to the joint than if it was made from uncompressed material. That is not to say it is stronger than a domino, which is obviously much thicker material, but at least stronger than an uncompressed version of itself.
I remember reading somewhere when I was researching buying a biscuit jointer, that there are issues with the swelling of biscuits, the story went something like;
When a joint is made and the biscuit swells, the surface of the joint is raised slightly, when this is sanded and lacquered, over time the whole workpiece will reach an equal moisture content and there will be some minor depressions where the swollen biscuit has shrunk back to its normal size.
I've never experienced this, but it makes for a plausible scenario, does it not?? Therefore if a thicker loose tenon (domino) was compressed the result of it reaching the same M/C as the workpiece would be a greater more visible depression.
Re: making your own tenons, it seems a simple process, I would like to see a path for excess glue left at the sides, as a perfect tenon going into a perfect mortice will surely result in disaster on finer workpieces. :doh:
My thoughts for what they're worth.
Regards
Grahame