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Finger Joined Materials
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Finger-joined (or -jointed) lumber is becoming a very popular and desirable product in the construction industry’s selection of engineered wood products. The rise in popularity can be attributed to its straightness, dimensional stability, compatibility with standard dimensional lumber and efficiency in wood fiber usage.
The product is manufactured by taking shorter pieces of quality kiln-dried lumber, machining a “finger” profile in each end of the short-length pieces, adding structural adhesive, and joining the pieces together. Although finger joining is used in several wood product manufacturing processes, the term “finger joined lumber” applies to dimension lumber.
Structural-glued dimension lumber has gained wide acceptance in the building and construction industry. It is accepted for use under all model building codes and is interchangeable with solid-sawn dimensional lumber of the same size, grade, and species, and is grade-marked accordingly. The material makes efficient use of available wood resources and can be manufactured in long lengths. Because it is typically fabricated from dry material, it is exceptionally dimensionally stable. Finger-joined material is typically stud or plate material that is made up of short lengths, glued together with finger-joints. Finger-joined studs tend to be straighter, and are an excellent opportunity to use a waste material to create a useful product. Eventually finger-joined studs can be manufactured on large job sites where pieces of cut stud are directed to the on-site mobile joiner for manufacture into full length useful studs.
The two major advantages of this product are its straightness and dimensional stability. The straightness factor is the result of stable short length pieces of lumber being combined in the manufacturing process. With finger joining, the length of a piece of lumber is not limited by tree size. In fact, the process may result in the production of joists and rafters in lengths of 40 feet or more. Another advantage is the greater value derived from the forest resource since the short-length pieces can be cut out of lower grade lumber. The finger joining process removes defects that impair strength. The strength of the joints is controlled by specifying the quality of wood in the area of the joint.
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Finger-jointed lumberA method of joining two pieces of lumber end-to-end by sawing into the end of each piece a set of pr |
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