CA2284144A1 - A method to produce elongated objects of wood - Google Patents

Abstract

Procedure for producing elongated wooden objects, such as, for example, posts (10) used for frames, and elongated objects (10) produced according to the procedure. Rounded timber (1), preferably in the form of a log, is divided down its length along at least one cleaved cut (2), after which the two semicircular sectional pieces of timber (4) are each bevelled (5) to an isosceles trapezium with its base comprising the cleaved cut (2) and with a nose angle that can be imagined to be 90~. Four such planed pieces of timber (4) are glued together with their bevelled sides against each other and the trapezium's short sides facing the middle of the elongated object (10) formed.

Description

A method to produce elongated objects of wood The present invention concerns a procedure for producing elongated wooden objects, such as posts. The invention also concerns an elongated object produced according to the procedure.
The invention particularly concerns, but is not exclusive to, a procedure for producing wooden posts that primarily uses thin timber, i.e. timber with a major diameter of less than 10 cm. Today, wooden posts, especially those used for making frames, are made of wood laminates glued together to form boards, which means that they warp over time, i.e. they twist and bend. Such wooden posts can also be produced by mounting together four boards to make what is in principle a box. Its strength is limited and the box will split with time.
With the help of the invention, a wooden post that has high strength, that does not warp with time, that has the heart of the trunk facing the outwards, and that has few of the problems associated with knots, can be achieved. This is possible by the invention having the characteristics given in the claims.
The invention will be described in greater detail in the form of an example with reference to the drawings, where Fig. 1 shows a schematic end view of round, unhewn timber - a tree trunk, Fig. 2 shows the rounded timber cleaved into two parts, Fig. 3 shows one of the parts of Fig. 2 planed to an isosceles trapezium in cross-section and Fig. 4 shows the elongated object made up of four pieces of timber obtained from two rounded pieces of timber.
Round, unhewn timber - a tree trunk 1 - is cleaved down its length along two cleaved cuts 2. The cleaved cuts 2 are positioned so that the heart of the tree remains in the remnants 3. Following cleaving, two semi-circular pieces of timber 4 are obtained, see Fig. 2. The right-hand part of Fig. 2 shows two planing cuts 5 marked so that, together with the cleaved cut of the timber, they form a section that can be imagined to be a right-angled isosceles triangle. As can be seen more clearly in Fig. 3, which shows the section of timber 4 planed according to the planing cuts 5 according to Fig. 2, the planed cut 5 has been provided with a groove 6 and tongue 7. By cleaving the tree trunk on either side of the heart, which is left in the remnants 3, the planed timber section 8 will not have a triangular shape but the shape of an isosceles trapezium. If wished, the short side 9 can also be planed.
Fig. 4 shows the post 10 assembled from four finished planed pieces of timber 8. This figure shows clearly how the pieces of timber 8 are positioned with groove 6 and tongue 7 acting against each other. The planed surfaces are glued to each other, suitably by means of a continuous press. As such, which does not make up any part of the invention, post 10 can in principle be made as long as desired by placing an end-splicing mill prior to the gluing and the continuous press.
By means of the invention, a better saw yield with a glued post that does not twist or warp is obtained. The finished post has the heart of the trunk facing outwards, which gives a hard and even surface without the disturbance of knots and, since the timber dries successively and the cleaved side 2 with the heart of the trunk attempts to adopt a convex shape, with joints that are the subject of a self tightening effect.
It should be understood that all sizes of rounded timber - tree trunks - can be used, but that the major benefits of the invention are, as noted, obtained with thin timber, i.e. timber with a major diameter of less than 10 cm. In the same way, the groove and tongue are naturally not essential for production of the post. It can also be imagined that timber sections with profiles whose nose angles deviate from 90° could be cut from the tree trunk, but in that case, a large part of the saw yield would be lost, which in the described example is about 70% compared with about 35% for making equivalent posts today.

Claims (3)

Claims

1. Procedure for producing elongated wooden objects, such as posts (10), characterised in that the rounded timber (1), essentially thin and preferably in the form of a log, is divided down its length along at least one cleaved cut (2), that the parallel cleaving cuts (2) are located outside and on either side of the heart (8) of the rounded timber (1), that the two semi-circular sectional pieces of timber (4) are each bevelled (5) to an isosceles trapezium with its base comprising the cleaved cut (2) and with a nose angle that can imagined to be 90°, and that four such planed pieces of timber (4) are glued together with their bevelled sides against each other and thus with the trapezium's short sides facing the middle of the elongated object (10) that is formed.

2. Procedure according to claim 1, characterised in that one bevelled side of the planed pieces of timber (5) is provided with at least one groove (6) and the other bevelled side with at least one tongue (7) corresponding to the groove.

3. Elongated objects (10) produced according to the procedure according to claims 1-3.