| Full-lap joints and half-lap (also called halving) joints are | | | | wood of the same thickness. In this joint, cut-outs are |
| used for all kinds of framing in furniture and in structural | | | | made in both pieces to half their thickness (hence the |
| timber work. They are used at corners, T-junctions | | | | name). This produces a joint flush on both faces - or |
| and where battens or timbers cross, and are usually | | | | edges, since it can be made with the components flat |
| pinned or screwed (as well as glued) together. | | | | or on edge. There are three variations: the corner |
| The joints are usually made at right-angles and may be | | | | halving, the cross halving and the T-halving. |
| used for wood of the same or differing thickness. In | | | | Dovetail halving |
| the latter case, a joint with one face level is produced. | | | | This is a stronger variation of the T-halving. It is |
| The joints are often covered on at least one side by | | | | basically a joint in which the cross rail end is cut as |
| cladding but may sometimes be visible in simple | | | | described overleaf for a half-lap and the halved |
| structures, like wooden bunk beds. | | | | projection is cut again from both corners back to the |
| Full-lap joint | | | | shoulder line at an angle, to produce a fan-like dovetail |
| This joint can be used only where one piece of wood | | | | shape. A taper of 1 in 6 should be used in softwood, 1 |
| (the one that is being cut) is at least twice the size of | | | | in 8 in hardwood. With the dovetail placed on the face |
| the other. Typically, a full-lap joint could be used to join | | | | or edge of the side rail, the halving in that rail should be |
| a cross rail, laid face up, to a side rail on edge. As the | | | | marked out to fit and cut. |
| name suggests, the joint is made where the cross rail | | | | The dovetail halving is much stronger than a square |
| overlaps by cutting away the upper edge of the side | | | | cut halving and can be used where there is a pull along |
| rail and letting it in, to its full thickness. | | | | the length of the cross rail, or where the side rail might |
| Halving joint | | | | tend to splay under pressure on its ends. |
| The half-lap or halving is used to join two pieces of | | | | |