I'm working on some shelves from a piece of black oak that's 38 inches long and 8 inches tall and wide. The shelves will end up being 0.75 inches thick and 15 inches deep, so I need to glue pieces together to get the right depth. I'm trying to figure out whether it's better to glue together 3 pieces that are each 5 inches wide, or to use just 2 pieces at 7.5 inches wide. I have this feeling that 3 pieces might be stronger, but I'm a bit of a beginner and I'm not sure why that is.
3 Answers
It probably won't make much of a difference. Both options should be strong enough and should stay flat, as long as they're properly milled and joined.
If you’ve got a table saw and a good rip blade, you can make a jig to joint the edges. Just look up 'boat builder jointer jig' and check out the Nomad boat building video on YouTube. I made a couple of jigs for mine, one using poplar and the other with some plywood, which worked really well for jointing edges. I jointed about 20 walnut boards into 13x6 panels for some nightstands too!
For strength, I think the milling and how flat the edges are matter more than the number of pieces. Personally, I would go with 3 pieces that are each 5 inches wide, especially since I have a 6-inch jointer and need to fit that. If your wood is already S4S, using 2 boards means less cutting and fewer chances to mess things up.
I don't have a jointer either, but I just got a sweet deal on a planer. I'll definitely look for some tutorials on how to joint without one before I run those through the planer.
Thanks for the tip! I've been watching a lot of videos and it seems like either a table saw jig or a router could help. I'll check out the jig you mentioned for sure.