Many home crafters would like to know how to make glued laminated timber with their own hands. Everyone knows that this material is relatively expensive. In addition, it often happens that only one beam is needed, which may simply be unprofitable to follow. For example, many owners of private houses use this material as a very strong and durable load-bearing beam.
It's not too difficult to make a similar beam with your own hands. First of all, you need to prepare the tools. You will need:
- hacksaw;
- measurement tools (ruler and tape measure);
- grinder;
- good glue for wood;
- clamps;
- acetone or other solvent;
- lumber.
In the event that you want to make glued laminated timber with your own hands, you need to make sure that all the blanks are dried in the most thorough way. Otherwise, the finished product will warp over time.
So, the first step is to mark and cut all the components of the future timber. Whereinabout five centimeters are left for allowances. Take several blanks and put them next to each other so that the annual rings and fibers are directed in opposite directions. Further, in order to make a high-quality timber with your own hands, you need to assemble it without using glue. In this case, you will have a great opportunity to correct all possible flaws.
Surfaces on which the adhesive will be applied in the future must be treated with special means. But first you need to carefully polish them. To do this, use a grinder and sandpaper. Next, making the beam with your own hands, you need to clean it of dust using a brush. The resulting even and smooth surface is treated for degreasing with a solvent. You can use acetone for this purpose.
Then, to prevent rotting of the material, the entire timber, including the surface on which the glue will be applied, is wiped with an antibacterial agent. It is inexpensive and can be purchased at any hardware store. Continuing to make timber with your own hands, the processed parts are thoroughly dried. After that, glue is applied to the joints. At this stage, it is important to follow all the recommendations given to it in the instructions.
All surfaces are neatly coated with glue without gaps. Thus, the finished glued laminated timber is gradually assembled. After this work is completed, the resulting material is fixed with clamps. After the glue has dried (time alsoindicated in the instructions) the timber is subjected to final processing - planing with a grinder or planer until it receives a beautiful streamlined shape, characteristic of a factory product.
Do-it-yourself profiled timber is even easier to do. You need to take an ordinary timber and give it the necessary geometric shape, using any available woodworking tools. After the desired result is obtained, the beam is treated as carefully as possible with a planer and sandpaper to such an extent until all its surfaces become perfectly smooth.
The final step in the manufacture of both glued and profiled timber should be processing with a special tool that will increase their resistance to fire.
