6 ms·

Wood is malleable as well. Building a swing set for my children I learned the trick of taking the bow out of a warped 2x4 by applying leverage and screws as I a

Wood is malleable as well. Building a swing set for my children I learned the trick of taking the bow out of a warped 2x4 by applying leverage and screws as I assembled sections.

jacquesm 4y ago
Better glue and screw that or it will surprise you at some point (unless you used screw overkill :) ). Better still: ripsaw, reverse one part then glue back together. (a lot more work, but that way the internal stresses in the wood will cancel out).
- kjellsbells 4y ago
  Would you use screws over internal dowels/biscuits for such a project? curious about best practice for something that is going to be outdoors 24x7. i agree that you need something to counteract the shear forces from the wood trying to bend back to its original warp. Not arguing, just intellectually curious.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    In something like a swingset my first consideration would be safety, make everything from stuff that I'm 100% sure isn't going to surprise me one way or another, and given that it is a dynamically loaded structure with kids doing 'creative' stuff with it I'd aim for overkill rather than getting it 'just so' or working for something that looks good but that may not be strong enough. If it's going to be outdoors in the weather over a very long period of time I would not count on glue (unless you have very good process control and know exactly what the long term properties will be) but I'd use steel to connect the various wooden bits, typically hole through (large diameter), then epoxy the hole and then drill again (smaller diameter). That stops the wood around the hole from rotting away. You also want to take care in what kind of wood you use in the first place a nice wood for stuff like that is Tamarack, which doesn't rot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larix_laricina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larix_laricina Combined with stainless steel hardware that should last longer than you will.

Wood is malleable as well. Building a swing set for my children I learned the trick of taking the bow out of a warped 2x4 by applying leverage and screws as I assembled sections.

jacquesm 4y ago

Better glue and screw that or it will surprise you at some point (unless you used screw overkill :) ). Better still: ripsaw, reverse one part then glue back together. (a lot more work, but that way the internal stresses in the wood will cancel out).

kjellsbells 4y ago
Would you use screws over internal dowels/biscuits for such a project? curious about best practice for something that is going to be outdoors 24x7. i agree that you need something to counteract the shear forces from the wood trying to bend back to its original warp. Not arguing, just intellectually curious.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  In something like a swingset my first consideration would be safety, make everything from stuff that I'm 100% sure isn't going to surprise me one way or another, and given that it is a dynamically loaded structure with kids doing 'creative' stuff with it I'd aim for overkill rather than getting it 'just so' or working for something that looks good but that may not be strong enough. If it's going to be outdoors in the weather over a very long period of time I would not count on glue (unless you have very good process control and know exactly what the long term properties will be) but I'd use steel to connect the various wooden bits, typically hole through (large diameter), then epoxy the hole and then drill again (smaller diameter). That stops the wood around the hole from rotting away. You also want to take care in what kind of wood you use in the first place a nice wood for stuff like that is Tamarack, which doesn't rot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larix_laricina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larix_laricina Combined with stainless steel hardware that should last longer than you will.