Need ideas for fasteners

kelLOGg

Bob
Senior User
I am building 2 mobile altars for my church from an ash tree that was cut down two years ago. I will soon be fastening ash panels (5/16" x 5" x 38") around their perimeters and I don't want the fasteners to be so visible they attract attention and distract. There will be about 200 fasteners, be it screws, brads, or whatever. The ash has defects, hence the reason for removal, and it is intentional that such is part of the altar. The paneling will be coated with tung oil to bring out the color and examples are in the pics. There should be plenty of time for the odor to dissipate before being put in use. The top will be finished with polyurethane.

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Wiley's Woodworks

Wiley
Corporate Member
The best way to not have visible fasteners is to not have them. Can you glue on the panels, perhaps using strap clamps for pressure?

Second best is make fastener holes as small as possible. That would be using pin nails, probably 23 gauge, using an air compressor and gun. Custom mix several batches of your own filler to match the different colors of the wood panels. One key hack: use a heavy anvil, like a sledge hammer head, to back up the frame pieces when you drive the nails. Those vertical frame pieces will flex and cause either a loose connection or the nail head won't countersink itself.
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
The choice of fastening will be highly dependent on the final design. I tend to go with M & T joints for larger pieces and biscuits for smaller. Pin nails and glue might be acceptable too, but it depends on what is being made (how it is supposed to look). Counter-bored screws with grain matched plug covers might work too.

Charley
 

kserdar

Ken
Senior User
Glue, brad nails top and bottom only, cover nails with similar wood trim.
Trim will have a lot less holes to cover up.
 

JohnnyR

John
Corporate Member
Hard to tell what the final altar will look like, seems that there will be an opening to make use of the shelves. Therefore, easy to glue panels together and then screw in from the inside, elongating holes to allow for wood movement.
 

Howie

Howie
Senior User
Those panels are going to expand and contract depending on conditions. Might slot the frame and make small blocks w/tongue to allow for that. Pic. is of table slab to base connection but you get the idea, good luck.

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kelLOGg

Bob
Senior User
Hard to tell what the final altar will look like, seems that there will be an opening to make use of the shelves. Therefore, easy to glue panels together and then screw in from the inside, elongating holes to allow for wood movement.
How do you elongate holes? I see the need for this.
 

kelLOGg

Bob
Senior User
Hard to tell what the final altar will look like, seems that there will be an opening to make use of the shelves. Therefore, easy to glue panels together and then screw in from the inside, elongating holes to allow for wood movement.
There will be doors on the back (flat) side.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
You could put a bigger fastener on the tongue where it will be covered. I'd probably use an 18 gauge brad. But with 5 inch wide thin panels you are going to need to fasten more than just the tongues. 23 gauge pins would be the least visible. But they don't have heads and won't hold a lot. Another fastener to consider would be trim head screws. They have little heads about 3/16 inch in diameter. I have used colored wax crayons to fill the holes. You can get a set with several different colors to get a better color match. These screws would hold well. How visible they are is a function of how well you can match the wood with the crayon.

Hiding the screws behind trim is a great idea too. Another idea would be to consider the plug hiding the screw to be decorative. Make them of walnut or something and make them show on purpose.
 

kelLOGg

Bob
Senior User
Chris,
I'm struggling with that, too. I can use narrower flat boards, say 4" and sand an arc on the back side with a hand-held rotary sander. I would have to take off about 1/16" in the middle of the board at their ends and middle. I'm not close to starting that yet. I'm having to back up and install middle horizontal supports for the paneling. In my unheated barn/shop the thin paneling warps easily with the changing humidity which would be a disaster for the appearance without a middle support.
I knew I was getting into a BIG project when I volunteered for this. That's why I said it would be a winter long one.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas. I will refer back to them when I need them.
 

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