ABSTRACT
Finger joints are commonly used to produce long boards from short length timber. Such joints are acceptable in structural timber and in laminations for glulam. The adhesives normally used for finger-jointing are melamine/urea/formaldehyde and phenol/resorcinol/formaldehyde, which require lengthy periods to set. To study the effect of lower temperature on the rate of development of strength in finger joints, finger-joint specimens were prepared using low to medium density South African pine. Finger joints were tested for each adhesive system, at the time intervals specified, at all except the 10°C test temperature. Pine and saligna finger joints manufactured with these adhesive systems develop sufficient strength to allow further processing or dispatch within a very short period (5–30 minutes at 25–28°C). The assembled test samples, beech strips, and finger joints, were kept at the required conditions of temperature and humidity until the time of testing.
