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In this paper result of working quality of Melia dubia is reported after testing them under six major wood working operations namely - planing, sanding, turning, shaping, boring and mortising based on Indian Standard. The wood performed extremely well under planing. In shaping, the performance was good enough. Though all the other operations yielded poor results, the composite rating factor which is an overall performance indicator was 35 % more than that of Tectona grandis. The ease of working is only 93 % compared to teak. The working quality index which was based on the composite rating factor and ease of working worked out to 107 taking Tectona grandis as 100 mainly because of the high performance under planing and shaping and good performance under sanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moisture sorption behaviour of three coating thicknesses of shellac and polyurethane films on Dalbergia sissoo substrate is studied in this paper. The thin films of either coat failed to reduce the water vapour transmission significantly. However, the thick coats were able to reduce this rate illustrating the importance film thickness of coating used on surfaces of wood products. The increment in Moisture Content over the conditioned MC showed a clear film thickness effect in the case of PU with the increments reducing with increasing thickness. The Moisture Exclusion Effectiveness of PU coating showed better values than shellac coating with both the finishes showing a thickness effect. More importantly, the study illustrated the effect of coating thickness even when the differences are small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wood finishes protect the surface of wood from external agents, enhance its looks and improve its gloss (luster). On constant external exposure, UV rays gradually degrade the film coating resulting in loss of gloss. In this study, two commonly used finishes namely spirit shellac and polyurethane finish were used to investigate the pattern of loss of gloss due to UV interference. Two coatings of polyurethane (PU) and spirit shellac finish were applied on the surface of eucalyptus samples. The gloss levels of these and unfinished samples were monitored for different times of exposure of them to UV light. Gloss was measured at 600 gloss head using a Tri micro gloss meter regularly for 20 hours durations of UV exposure. Observations and analysis revealed that the natural gloss of uncoated samples of eucalyptus were least affected on UV exposure with only 8,3%-10% loss in gloss. The PU and shellac coated surfaces also showed very little reduction in gloss (6,9%-15,4%) most of which happened in the first 40 hours of exposure. Thus both the finishes in this study were found effective to a good extent in maintaining the gloss of the finished surface against exposure to UV light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an attempt was made to assess the effectiveness of finger jointing in utilising mango wood sections for various end uses like furniture. The study was based on the estimation of Modulus of elasticity and Modulus of rupture under static bending and Maximum Crushing Stress and Modulus of elasticity under compression parallel to grain of finger jointed sections and comparing them with the values measured for clear wood sections from the same lot. For joining the sections, the Poly Vinyl Acetate and Urea Formaldehyde adhesives were used. It was found that the Modulus of elasticity of the sections joined by either adhesive showed significantly better values than that of unjointed clear wood sections. The Modulus of rupture values of sections joined with Urea Formaldehyde were similar to those of unjointed clear wood sections. However, sections jointed with Poly Vinyl Acetate adhesive exhibited lower Modulus of rupture. Under compression, the parameters of the jointed sections joined with either adhesive were either similar or better than those of the unjointed clear wood sections. The study demonstrates the utility of finger jointing of mango wood sections for furniture parts especially with the Urea Formaldehyde adhesive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]