And here I go again ... Question: Strong fingers ?

[DeepForest]

     ???Receantly some people that i ... lets say co-workers that I dont trust .....  they'ved been telling me about the use of the strong fingers, and i don't have a clue.
  Im trying to know  a few things : Some one knows what r normally made of,
    have some one used it in construction and can recommend them, Manufaturers ??Price??
       Once again my ingorance makes me call the extraordinary forestry forum league to help me.

 Tks!!

[shopteacher]

Please clarify purpose and intended use of strong fingers?   May be way off base here, but this kinda smells like what that polar bear is trying to catch.

[DeepForest]

Tks !! sorry i know that i wasnt very specific. This polar Bear needs hours of sleep, to many things to do ....
        Finger jointing short pieces of lumber with adehesive and a dry fit joint. I m not familiar with the process, prices, manufacturers etc. Its a good product, weak, strong ?.. and what its made of ( very important to me, because i have lots of waste, and im trying to save some of that waste) Some fellows (that i dont trust very much) say that its an upcoming buisness.
          But as i said before im very new in the wood buisness, and r lots of things that im learning and most of them r the hard way.
          Thats why I trust i could find some answers here.
DP
         

[Ianab]

I do some work for a local timber wholesaler that runs a finger jointing operation. It's a big expensive looking setup that takes about 10 people to operate.
But they process a BIG stack of knotty budget pine into finger jointed clear timber in a day. The glued up boards are as strong as any normal board, in fact if they break it's usually not at the glue joint, thats stronger than the wood.

It's a process that is more suited to a big operation, making use of low grade timber for high grade mouldings and weatherboards etc.

After I got the computer on the "optimiser saw" running again I stayed and watched the process for a few minutes.

The boards are loaded on to a sorting table with a forklift and then placed on a conveyor. A couple of operators grade them with a marking crayon as they go past. Just a dash of colour across any knot or defect. They feed directly into the saw that reads the marks and cuts out the knots and drops them into the firewood bin. The computer measures and reports what precentage is being recovered etc. The clear shorts (may be 1 to 3 feet long)come out of the saw and feed into another machine that cuts the fingers. Down another conveyor and they get a coat of glue on each end and are lined up in a press and glued back together. They are stacked and baked to cure the glue then run thru a planer to give finished boards.

This is a web page of another company that has a similar operation.
http://www.panahomenz.co.nz/english/process.html

ian