The problem was to design and construct the necessary equipment to cut and fasten short stock end to end using finger-joints. The study was divided into five chapters: I contained the introduction to the problem; II was concerned with the design and construction of the equipment; III detailed the operation of the equipment; IV contained the presentation of the data; and V covered the summary and findings. The study concluded that the equipment could be constructed inexpensively, and would perform a useful service. Also, a student using waste wood salvaged through use of this equipment could expect a smaller bill for materials than if he purchased new wood.

The gluing of unseasoned wood, called green gluing, is a relatively new sawmill process, implying a radically changed order of material flow in the production of value-added wood-based products. It facilitates the enhancement of raw material recovery and value yield by integrating defect elimination and gluing already before kiln drying. The present study evaluates green glued adhesive bonds in flatwise glued beams and finger joints. The main part of this work deals with green gluing using a moisture curing polyurethane adhesive (PUR). Standardised test methods and specially designed, small scale, specimens were used for the determination of the strength, fracture energy and the ductility of both dry- and green glued bonds in tension and in shear. Using the small scale specimens it was possible to capture the complete stress versus deformation curves, including also their unloading part. An optical system for deformation measurement was used for the analysis of bond behaviour. The influence of moisture content during curing and temperature after curing on the adhesive chemical composition and on the mechanical properties was investigated. Furthermore, the moisture transport through the adhesive bond during curing was tested. Finally, microscopy studies were performed for analysis of bond morphology and fracture. The results show that two significant factors influence the shear strength of green glued bonds: wood density and adhesive spread rate. Bonds which fulfil the requirements according to EN 386 could be obtained within a wide range of process parameters. The small specimen tests showed that green glued PUR bonds can reach the same strength and fracture energy, both in shear and in tension, as dry glued bonds with the same adhesive amount. The local material properties of the bonds could be determined, thanks to the failure in the tests taking place within the adhesive bond itself and not in the wood. Following process factors were shown to cause lower bond strength: a) a low adhesive spread rate, b) high pressure and c) short pressing time in combination with low wood density and high moisture content. Moreover, the heat treatment of the cured PUR adhesive during drying influenced the chemical composition of the adhesive, providing for higher strength, stiffness and Tg of the adhesive, caused by an increased amount of highly ordered bidentate urea.

Acetylation of wood is a modification technique that chemically alters the wood substance and enhances several properties of wood. The basic principle is to impregnate wood with acetic anhydride to react and replace OH-groups with acetyl groups in the wood cell wall. In this way, the hygroscopicity of the modified wood is significantly reduced resulting in increased dimensional stability and durability compared with unmodified wood.The objective of this work was to study finger-jointing of acetylated Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) using a conventional melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF) adhesive. Two different types of acetylated pine specimens were investigated, acetylated pine sapwood (APS) and acetylated juvenile pine (AJP), the latter originating from young forest thinning trees (ca 20-30 years). The goal was to evaluate the bending strength, i.e. modulus of rupture (MOR), of such finger-jointed samples, in particular when the acetylated wood was combined with unmodified wood, in this case, Norway spruce (Picea Abies L. Karst) (US). The finger-jointing were performed at Moelven Töreboda by applying their existing industrial procedures. In total, five different of finger jointed sample groups were prepared combining the different specimens: APS-APS, AJP-AJP, US-US, APS-US, and AJP-US. Standardized procedures were used to determine the MOR of the finger-jointed samples, both unexposed at the factory condition state and after a water-soaking-drying cycle. In addition, the experiments also included determination of the moisture content (MC), density, and modulus of elasticity (MOE) (in bending along the grain) of the individual specimens.At the unexposed state, the APS-APS samples showed the highest MOR of 63,1 MPa, while those of the AJP-AJP showed the lowest value of 42,4 MPa. The corresponding values for the US-US, AJP-US and APS-US samples was 56,7, 47,5 and 46,9 MPa, respectively. In contrast to a typical wood failure for the US-US samples, a low amount of wood failure was observed in all cases involving the acetylated wood, indicating a low adhesive anchoring in the wood substrate at the finger-joint, although a surprisingly high strength was obtained for the APS-APS samples. A significantly lower MC content of 4,9 % and a remarkably low value of 1,7 %, was found for the APS and AJP, respectively, compared with 9,2% for the US. The significantly lower MC combined with an assumed increased hydrophobicity of the acetylated wood possible causes a less effective MUF-wood bonding, or adhesion, compared with that of the unmodified wood. Possible, so-called over penetration of the MUF resin in the acetylated wood could also be an explanation for the poor wood-adhesive anchoring. The MOE of the individual APS, AJP and US specimens was 12,6, 8,3 and 11,4 GPa, respectively, indicating a significantly lower mechanical performance of AJP, and hence also of finger-joints of AJP, despite its very low MC, possible due to a higher microfibril angle in the cell walls in juvenile wood compared with mature wood. No clear correlation was found between the MOR and density of the acetylated samples.For the samples exposed to a water-soak-drying cycle, the highest MOR, and lowest reduction of 14 % compared with the unexposed state, was obtained for the US-US samples, whereas all samples involving the acetylated wood showed a distinctly higher reduction. The MOR of the AJP-AJP and AJP-US samples were reduced with 47 % and 50 %, respectively, while the MOR of the APS-APS and APS-US samples were reduced with 43 % and 23 %, respectively. It should be emphasized, however, that after the standard drying-time, which was the same for all samples, the acetylated samples, compared with the untreated ones, did not dry out to the same level as for the dry unexposed state, i.e. the acetylated samples had a high MC of ca 30-40% in these MOR tests. This high MC level could be the main reason for the dramatic strength losses. Furthermore, a less efficient wood-MUF adhesion as well as the drying under acidic conditions may also be possible causes for the reduced bending strength of the finger-jointed samples with acetylated wood.