when to use a butt joint vs tongue and grove? Strength?
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Tagged: butt joint, tongue and grove
I’m new to this type of work and although I have experience repairing houses, this is a whole different ball game.
My question is when and why, to use a butt joint or a tongue & grove joint? I understand it for end grain, the t&G would be better as end grain is hard to glue with strength. But if your joining two boards say for a table top or side of a cabinet, which joint is correct, preferred, etc.
When is one better than the other?
I did search the forum, but came up empty.
Gary
Almost always it is a butt joint that is used. I can’t think of a reason why one would use a tongue and groove to edge joint boards like that, in a minority of cases possibly to help with alignment. However glues do have a reasonable time within which you can shift boards about a bit if required so the advantage is pretty much cancelled out.