Solid Wood Products 2599 



Hoover et al. (1978) found that in the United States there are about 1,308 

 manufacturers of upholstered household furniture who consume nearly 300 

 million board feet of lumber annually for frame stock. A frame-stock mill 

 located in northeastern Georgia would be within 350 miles of about 50 percent of 

 the nation's manufacturers of upholstered furniture (fig. 22-17). 



Section 18-12 describes the technology of ripping and cross-cutting lumber to 

 yield furniture parts such as those shown in figure 22-16 (top). To more com- 

 pletely use plentiful low-quality oak logs for furniture frames, the U.S. Forest 

 Products Laboratory proposed using thick veneer parallel-laminated into lum- 

 ber. To accomplish this, they rotary-peeled northern red oak veneer 0.29 inch 

 thick, and press-dried it (fig. 20-32) at 375°F. Subsequently the sheets were 

 reheated at 320°F for 3^2 minutes, and passed through a glue spreader which 

 applied phenol-resorcinol adhesive, 60-65 percent solids extended 10 percent 

 with water, at the rate of 60 pounds per thousand square feet. The sheets were 

 then laid up into blanks or boards and cold-pressed until cured. All of the boards 

 were of 4-ply construction with the loose faces of the veneer turned toward the 

 center of the board (fig. 22-16 bottom). 



Eckelman et al. (1979) found that this parallel-laminated northern red oak 

 veneer, termed Pres-Lam, splintered slightly more than solid northern red oak 

 when machined, but tests indicated there should be no serious problems in 

 cutting parts from the laminated material. The laminated veneer was not as 

 strong as solid red oak, but because of reduced variability, design stresses for the 

 laminate would likely be nearly as high as those for yellow-poplar. (See Eckel- 

 man 1978b for a discussion of the strength of solid wood parts in furniture 

 frames.) Shear strength, about 53 percent of northern red oak, would be ade- 

 quate for most frame designs. Screw- and dowel-holding strength of the parallel- 

 laminated veneer, less than that of northern red oak, was about the same as that 

 of yellow-poplar. With metal-toothed connector plates, structural-quality joints 

 may be formed in the laminated wood. In general, no problems were encoun- 

 tered that would prevent the laminated wood from being used as frame stock. 



Studies indicate that manufacture of parallel-laminated oak veneer for frame 

 stock should be economically feasible. (See section 28-16 and also Hoover et al. 

 1978 and 1979.) 



22-6 toys' 



The world retail market for all types of toys was $7 to $8 billion in 1975; 

 wooden toys accounted for about $250 million for about 3 percent of the total, 

 but this share has been growing rapidly. The prinicpal markets for toys in 1974 

 were the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, 

 and France, in that order. These countries also appear to be the largest importers 

 of toys. 



^Text under this section is condensed from International Trade Centre, UNCTAD/G ATT (1976). 



