Edge Gluing "Flat Clamp"

Is this a concept drawing? The question I have about it, is do you think there’s enough vertical clamping pressure? I believe you intend for the device to exert clamping pressure on the ends by having the pressure from the right side cause the clamp to close in the vertical direction, I’m just not sure if that’d be enough. Also, as the clamp closed, the center pieces would also skew a bit, so they wouldn’t be centered over the ends – probably not a big deal unless you were edge gluing multiple boards.

-- The difference between being defeated and admitting defeat is what makes all the difference in the world - Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle"

I need one of these. Could you explain it?

No, it’s a full-scale CAD drawing. It’s basically a set of opposing toggle linkages tied together by two horizontal rails. The block on the left is screwed/glued to a flat surface (I’m putting it on a 1” thick, 2’ x 3’ marine plywood base). It’s slotted slightly to allow the center pivot bolt for the left toggle assembly to rise and fall to center itself between the horizontal rails. The left toggle assembly is basically permantntly mounted. The lower rail sits between two guide blocks to allow it to shift left-and-right to compensate for different lamination thicknesses and stay perpendicular to the face of teh block. The right toggle assembly “travels” in 1-inch increments (uisng holes drilled in the upper and lower rails at 1 inch increments) as needed for different lamination sectionals. The upper rail has open slots instead of holes for the upper right toggle bolt to allow the upper horizontal rail to open and fold to the left. The horizontal clamping screw in the right toggle assembly is a 1/4-20 hex bolt with its end modified so a “foot” can be added to protect (somewhat) the edge of the lamination. It threads through a cross-drilled and tapped 1/2” rod that’s also tapped 1/4-20 in its ends to accomodate the center linkage pivot bolt. The rail dimensions are conceptual dimensions only (to show the offset of teh upper right slot as compared to the left and lower holes). Mine are 12” long with holes for the toggles at 1-inch increments. I’m building 6 of these and will mount them at 3” intervals so I can glue up long laminations. The blocks will have their pressure faces all aligned to form a variation of a fence. The spacing between the upper and lower roails is controlled by the laminatino thickness and equally sized spacers. The further apart the rails, the more the clamping pressure will be transferred to the rails in a vertical direction. I guess I’ll learn what spacing works best as I use it. I’ll relieve the right hand ends of the spacers to guide the pressure bolt and keep it centered on teh lamination. Since the left hand block is screwed down to the “platform” it won’t move and won’t cause any skewing. Did I mention that there are linkages on both sides of the rails – one on this side and matching linkage on the other side so everything pulls evenly and squarely?

-- M1911BLDR

Looks like a great Idea. Look forward to a working model.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I finally found something that uses the same idea- a little pricey for my tastes, though. Guess I’ll keep on with my build…
http://www.advmachinery.com/pdfs/plano.pdf

-- M1911BLDR

I had that set up and it’s suppose to be for panels but was not good at aligning edges and took up a lot of wall space.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I was thinking the same thing when I looked over their pamphlet. The difference in mine is that the clmaping pressure is directly transferred to the rails. This way, the rails come together with more force. And like I said earlier, you can control the amount of “flat” clamping pressure by increasing the angle of the toggles. 45 deg would give the same pressure in both directions. For the small “panel” laminations I’m doing, the one I built works wonders. With more clamps, I’ll be able to make bigger “first generation” laminations and get more cuts out of each glue setup.

-- M1911BLDR

Please include pictures of your device in operation.

-- Do something nice for somebody

I use painters tape…............seems to work !!

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso

is that the same concept as this?

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2000321/1858/WoodRiver-Clamping-System.aspx

I use these from Rockler

-- I don't make mistakes, only design changes....www.dgmwoodworks.com

Hot Da@$! Now I don’t have to build mine! I couldn’t, for the life of me, find these anywhere on the ‘net. and you guys show us two examples. I like the Woodcraft ones ‘cause they come with the “step blocks” for adjusting and you don’t have to cut slots in the 2×2. Thanks guys, I knew someone had to be making these.

-- M1911BLDR