Is it safe to glue 30cm of long grain to workto end grain ?

[Benchwayze]

To be honest - I am not sure what all the fuss is about? End grain is par for the course.

Totally agree. It looks nice too if it's cleaned up and polished, or oiled thoroughly. Oh.. I already said that!

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Can you post a link to any independent data? I measure the RH in my home and workshop and it's rarely outside the range 50-60%, the workshop has a slightly wider range but the highest figures are invariably in the winter, not the summer.

custard, somewhere I have another source or two, which I can't locate at the moment. I'll look for them if I have time later. However, here are records I made of a year's worth of close monitoring of temperature and RH in a house where I was living back in 2006- 2007. The house was a 1930’3 brick construction with sealed window units, central heating and good insulation. Notice the lower peak of RH values in about July of the sample period, followed by a higher peak in September. This was due to the never ending rain that inundated the UK in June and July of 2007, if you remember that period, and bear in mind sampling ran from Aug 1, 2006 until July 31, 2007. Slainte.

 

[Graham Orm]

Mine stays around 65% year round.....just saying.

I find that hard to believe, unless you live in a very unusual house, or you're monitoring of RH conditions and record keeping are not as rigorous as they could be. RH conditions that vary minimally both diurnally and seasonally in a residential property is not something I've ever come across. Slainte.

I have a gauge on the sideboard next to the clock. I don't write it down, that would make me rather anal, as would arguing over it..... so I wont.

 

[MIGNAL]

Humidity in the atmosphere is never constant. Humidity within a house varies from day to day, season to season. Being a musical instrument maker I have to watch the Humidity like a hawk. My workshop is within the house, centrally heated, insulated attic space. I have 3 Hygrometers, all calibrated using 3 different types of salts and a sling psychrometer. I also have a dehumidifier and the best I can get out of it running full blast and doors all closed is a 5% reduction in RH. That's in a single room. It's extremely hard to control humidity from the external environment when people are opening and closing doors + the air flow that is the norm. You really need some serious industrial dehumidifiers to gain full control.
So Richard's 30 - 40% humidity in winter to 65% RH in summer is just a touch out. It gets much worse than that. I've measured as low as 26% (rare but happens) on very cold, snowy days to 75% on warm humid days in summer. The RH plunged below 30% on that unexpected arctic snowy blast we had the other year in Spring time.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Mine varies from 55% to 90% - One of the penalties of living in Cornwall.

 

[MIGNAL]

I think you will find it goes way below 55% on certain days, unless your Hygrometer happens to be in a very damp cellar. Check it the next time we get a very cold snowy day.

 

[andersonec]

If the OP is going to glue on a piece then End grain will be on show to the front edge of the worktop, unless he creates a mitred joint.

Thanks !!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I think you will find it goes way below 55% on certain days, unless your Hygrometer happens to be in a very damp cellar. Check it the next time we get a very cold snowy day.

No, I watched it over 3 or 4 years, and never saw it go below 55% - we don't often tend to get cold snowy days.
This was my workshop, not my house.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

So Richard's 30 - 40% humidity in winter to 65% RH in summer is just a touch out. It gets much worse than that. I've measured as low as 26% (rare but happens) on very cold, snowy days to 75% on warm humid days in summer. The RH plunged below 30% on that unexpected arctic snowy blast we had the other year in Spring time.

You are correct. I measured higher and lower RH values on certain days, as you point out. For example during a very limited number of winter days I was getting numbers like 20%+, yet on another day I'd get a reading in the 50% area. But in compiling the graph I included in an earlier post note that the readings are monthly averages, so numbers at the extreme ends of the scale get a bit lost in the number crunching.

Also, wood does not react immediately to changes in RH and temperature by swelling or shrinking, and this is because of an hysteresis effect, a time lag in this case - basically, when the RH of the air rises rapidly, it takes quite a bit of time for the increased water vapour to work its way into the wood's cell walls which would cause them to swell. So, it's generally more useful to use the averaged monthly RH figures so that you can account for seasonal trends rather than take too close a note of hourly or daily changes in RH. It's not too often that a large overnight change in RH for example has much of an effect on a piece of wood, although even a small effect can be troublesome for some woodworkers, e.g., some musical instrument makers. Slainte.

 

[custard]

This is similar to the pattern that I see, relatively stable but with humidity dropping in the summer. If I have gates or drawers that occasionally stick they'll stick in the winter, not the summer.

http://www.weather-and-climate.com/aver ... ed-Kingdom

 

[Sgian Dubh]

This is similar to the pattern that I see, relatively stable but with humidity dropping in the summer. If I have gates or drawers that occasionally stick they'll stick in the winter, not the summer.
http://www.weather-and-climate.com/aver ... ed-Kingdom

Those RH values are for external conditions in London. They don't follow the same pattern as the values found inside habitable buildings- quite the reverse normally. Cold external air in the winter may have a high RH, but the Absolute Humidity (AH) is low because cold air can't carry much water vapour. Any cold winter air (lowish AH) brought into a house and warmed results in lowering its RH significantly. In addition, during UK winters we tend to keep the windows and doors shut to keep out the cold. Notwithstanding the fact that we all do things in houses that add moisture to the air, e.g., showering, cooking, washing clothes, etc, the general tendency is for internal RH to be low, i.e., somewhere fairly close to 40%, unless the house has little or no insulation, draughty windows, poor climate control, etc. On the other hand, summer is the time of year when windows and doors are open letting in air from outside, and climate control devices are turned off. This warmer (than winter) external air does have a lower RH than winter air, but a higher AH, simply because warm air can carry much more water vapour than cold air.

I'm a little surprised that you report drawers jamming in the winter and moving easily in the summer, but this I suspected may be related to the kind of conditions your house interior experiences. Slainte.

 

[MMUK]

Nice to see threads sticking to the subject as usual :lol:

 

[MIGNAL]

Nothing to worry about. Threads often veer off into different directions. It's not too dissimilar to a friendly chat with mates in the Pub. Providing the original question has been answered it's perfectly harmless and often quite informative.

 

[RobinBHM]

In that case I've got a question about sharpening

 

[baldpate]

Thank you all for your input, and for the bonus discussion on humidity!

 

[MMUK]

In that case I've got a question about sharpening

Don't slam the door on your way out please :wink: