Laminate for Stability

by Rob Carver

Who would use lamination to explain averaging and diversification?  Before we go there, first understand that Rob’s article suggests a laminated board can be more stable and flatter with equal thickness across the board when compared to a solid hardwood board.  While solid hardwood will move (expand, contract, cup, or twist), a laminated board will not. This would recommend using a laminated board when a shop-made fence is needed for a router table, drill press, band saw, table saw, or the like.

Consider the process for making a lamination board of a specific thickness.   Several layers of a desired equal thickness are glued together.  The likely scenario, however, is that some layers will be slightly over and some lightly under the desired thickness.  While the individual thicknesses of those layers are likely not to be exactly the desired thickness, their average will approximate the desired thickness because the overs and unders will generally offset each other.  In this case, averaging is an operation that removes noise.

But Rob goes further in typical MTCO fashion.  Rob presents some natural world phenomena using this same concept of benefiting from averaging, such as, stock investments (stock diversification) and  weather forecasts (averaging several models).  And I can add another – generating a more accurate (stable) election poll by averaging several like models.

Laminate for Stability is a clever, thoughtful essay revealing a true MTCO dictum shared in woodworking and the greater natural world.

You can reach Rob by clicking Rob Carver.