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Plywood Gusset or OSB Gusset for DIY trusses

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jreep1973

Structural
Oct 28, 2013
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Could someone walk me through a simple/sample calculation of, "how to design a plywood gusset" for truss joint connections. I conservatively want to design the gusset based on nailing (BUT I will be gluing too).
I will be using 7/16 OSB gusset plates with common nails and the truss chord is a 2x6. The force in the chord is 800#.
Or, is there a link to a design example that someone could share?
 
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I have a question in my mind as to why OSB vs plywood. In doing some looking on the Internet there is plenty about differences for sheathing, roofing, moisture, etc, but little on tensile or compressive strength. For plywood they say tensile strength is the sum of the plys in the direction of the pull. For OSB they say more pieces of wood are oriented in the tensile direction. However, are they connected? For a truss are your forces parallel to those strands always? Possibly the US Forest Products lab Madison, WI has publications on OSB. They usually are the standard reference for me. For the wood trusses I have built, I use ring shank nails due to their much better holding capacity. I'd shy away from OSB if any moisture ever is present. Looks cheaper also.
 
I would be careful about using plywood/osb for typical gusset substitution. We have a rule-of-thumb that what doesn't look like structure, isn't structure (to a contractor or building owner). If somebody is cutting finishes, studs, etc. in the vicinity they may cut through the plywood without noticing it is part of the structure.

Just a thought.
 
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