Church pew and Delta Gamma sign

[gramps92]

Yesterday a friend called to have me split a 12' church pew in half and put new ends on them. The ones on now appear to be 2 3/4" boards laminated. If I did this would I have any wood movements problems? It proly would be easier to fit to pew end this way. Today my granddaughter wants me to make a sign for her sorority out of wood, I'm thinking cedar, should I use 1 1/2" or would 3/4" laminated be better,my thinking this may be a little stronger, also not sure whether wood movement would be involved in this also, thanks for any advice and help. CA

[AHill]

Is the pew oak? I'm thinking if you stick to the original construction method of the ends, you'll be OK. Stick to the same wood as the original for the ends.

I'm kinda confused about the sign. Is this separate from the pew? Is it to be applied to the end of the pew? You have two choices on the delta gamma application. You can either rout the delta gamma into a background, or apply raised letters to a field. My vote would be routing the letters. Raised letters are more prone to getting banged into over the years, as the sorority moves the furniture around, with whatever events they have in the sorority house, etc.

[Bill Wilson]

Regarding the church pews, you may have wood movement issues. I know that the pews we have in our church, the ends are made with 2 layers of glued up boards, all red oak. Some of them have warped over the years. May be all sorts of factors involved in that and who knows if it was preventable or not, but I see that the wood used for the glue ups are a mixture of riftsawn, flatsawn and quartersawn boards. May have been some variations in environmental conditions that contributed as well, but there is noticeable warpage in some of the ends and also a few small cracks.

[gramps92]

The sorority signs are for my granddaughter's sorority, going to to be the triangle and the upside down L. It's going outside on they're house. I thought laminating my make it stronger but I don't know. thanks for the help on the pew, just got to thinking we are both 75 years old so proly it needs only to last a few years on the pew.LOL

[John Mihich]

If you are going to do the pews like the original then I think you'll have no trouble - the originals lasted a pretty long time. I know the ones at my church are glue ups. I reduced on several years ago and can't tell I did it.

I'm thinking about others I have seen and think all were glue ups.

As for the sign - cedar is used all the time outside - so good choice there. I think I would just use what ever is cheaper 1 1/2" vs 2 - 3/4" boards. If you laminate the 3/4" in the same direction there would not be any real issues with wood movement. Cross grain - maybe okay - since cedar is fairly soft the wood may give a bit during the different seasons. I would just glue them in one direction this way I wouldn't have to think about the movement.

[CLETUS]

Here are some pics of 2 busted up old pews that I turned into 1 "good" one. Maybe, some of these pics can help you with construction.











Prior repair and the sole reason I HATE gorilla glue.
















This is the dovetailed slot the seat fit into.












I have more pics of the deconstruction, but I guess I never uploaded them to photobucket.

[Bob10]

That's the way the pews I tore apart were built too.