On 1/27/2011 3:09 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:

As I said, I am not the OP. I'm just the guy that said that this whole
topic of wood movement has taken on legs of its own. To hear the people
here, one would think that any form of joinery is going to result in
movement forces so great that they will shear screws that are part of the
joinery. It is that point with which I take exception.

Certainly wood moves. The problem here is that when a person makes an
extremem statement and it is challenged, voices pop out of the woodwork
quoting the experience of a thousand years. Yawn. People tell you to look
at furniture in your house. Yawn. Do that. Look at that furniture and you
will be shocked to discover how much of it should have been warped into a
pretzel by now, according to the rhetorical expertise that gets thrown
about.

A lot of guys here throw out expertise based upon what they have read and
not based upon what exists around them, or what they have actually done and
experienced. I have a complete set of cupboards that have doors made out of
1x6 T&G with cleats glued and screwed on the back side. Guess what -
they've held true for over 25 years in the seasonal changes of Central NY
state, where humidity does vary enough to be considered consequential.

I have dining room furniture that is not assembled according to the
recommendations that the outspoken voices proclaim must be - and after over
100 years, guess what - it's still solid, level and flat.

I simply encourage people who jump to quick answers to look around and see
what their furniture is built like. Don't just jump into some often quoted
technique about breadboard ends, as if that explains everything. Think
about the application being discussed, about the problem at hand, about the
evidence in front of your eyes.

It does no good to suggest throwing a build up of oak boards on the garage
floor - or even a piece of plywood on the garage floor. Is that what you
are building? Is that where it will be used?

A lot of guys here like to think of themselves as "craftsmen" becuase they
do things a certain way - regardless of whether that way was even called
for. Oh well. The fact is that the real craftsmen (myself not included in
that term) have figured out when to apply the principles of wood movement,
and when not to worry about it. And... to what extent. There is an awful
lot of unwarranted alarmist theory prvelent here that is just not well
founded woodworking practice. At a point, after it's gone on long enough...
it takes on a life of it's own. That though, does not make it accurate.

What he said ...

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