Joining two 1x2 hardwood sticks?

sigh If I were crucifying something on it, would I really need to worry about it being lightweight? The cross being heavy is part of the punishment.

I’m using it as a frame for a robot =)

To add to the glueing, you might consider usings these things (deuvels, or in English; butt joints) link (Dutch wikipedia with pics).
English Wiki: link

They make a template, drill , special drill bit, and specail screw for doing what your talking about. Its used for doing stuff like building cabinet frames. The template is a plastic thing with a lip that sits on the edge of your 1×2. on top of it it has 3 different sized raised holes at a 45 degree angle. You use the special bit that is set at a certain depth. Stick it in the 45 degree template and it drills just the right depth. The bit has a piece that stops it from going in too far. Your hole you drilled is 45 degrees and the top of the hole is bored out about .25 of an inch from the top. Your template and bit do all that.This is so when you use your screw they heads bury up just under the wood. Use wood glue too and you need clamps to hold it together while you drill and screw. You can pick up the whole kit in a plastic case for like 50 bones at Home Depot. Thats the professional way to do it.

Duct tape… lots of duct tape.

The half lap joint (technically, in this case it would be called a “middle lap”) with the gusset plates would be the way to go. I assume you’d be using aircraft ply for the plates? As for the glue, consider using epoxy with a fibrous filler in the joint itself. Titebond would be fine for the gusset plates.

I have drilled a hole through the lap joint and then glued in a dowel. Don’t know if it really makes it that much stronger, but I like the way it looks.

make sure the notches in the boards are very precise and tight. This will help structurally and will also help in the aesthetics area. I recommend “Gorilla Glue” for the project everywhere. It is really strong. After it is finished curing there will be some overflow from the glue expanding outwards but that can be scraped away.The expansion of the glue serves to make the bond tighter and will also fill any imperfections in the mating surfaces. If you have a pneumatic nailer -better yet a ¼” crown stapler using ¾” length staples instead of screws to shoot the pieces together I think it will be better than screws due to the thinness of the area involved. I think doing it this way, the joint area will be way stronger than the material itself, which is a good thing. WC