wood with web #1: thoughts on separating tension and compression
Those of you who have already seen my projects might have noticed the abundance of web clamps. I kind of like them. They are cheap and handy. But that’s not all that makes them an ideal companion for wood. The straps those web clamps are made of have a rather low modulus which means they expand if you put force on them – quite in the same amount wood does. They actually have a similar expansion/shrinkage with changes of humidity compared to wood. Quite unlike steel. Screws and nails have a high modulus, before they get visibly longer, the wood is broken. Consult your prefered woodworking handbook on the topic. Looking at typical lightweight constructions, there is commonly ...
