Glue-ups

Glueups usually involve loads of clamps, do have photos of the wood with calmps? This is critical for us to be able to figure out what you are doing right and where you may have a problem.

-- Love thy neighbour as thyself

dry fit, dry fit, dry fit. A Stanley #7 or #8 works best.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Maybe because I lack skills still, but I used to obsess with dry fits and did more harm than good. Now I dry fit with clamps to make sure there are no gaps in between the boards. If so, I’ll joint the edges again. I do a lot of glue ups and they come out pretty good. Some tips that really help me along the way:

I do big glue ups in sections for a few reasons:
1 – to make sure I can get enough clamping pressure for a tight joint
2 – I don’t have to rush to avoid missing the “open time” window
3 – so the piece will fit through my planer. I make sure all the sections are ready to plane and send them through the planer one after another so they are the same thickness. I leave the pieces a bit proud in all directions so I can trim all 4 sides square after planing.
4 – I make the final glue up and clean the rest with a hand plane and some 60 grit on an ROS, sanding diagonally against the grain across the entire piece

Get a few GOOD parallel clamps. Yes, they are absurdly expensive, but worth it. Even if you only have 2, it will make a huge difference. The pieces tend to stay put laterally a lot better than they do with bar clamps.

Cauls! I have some nice straight/flat 8/4 pieces of oak in various lengths with packing tape over one face. I put those in between each parallel clamp, then clamp the cauls to the bar of the parallel clamp on the bottom. I do this before I really tighten the parallel clamps. Ideally They are as outboard toward the edges of the piece as I can get them

The rest of the clamps I use are bar clamps. Alternate top and bottom and put screws on alternating sides.

I know glue manufacturers recommend leaving in clamps for 30 minutes to an hour, but I generally leave things clamped and cauled overnight.

Spread your glue evenly somehow. I use acid brushes but everyone has their own method

Once you think you have all the glue sanded off, you don’t. Wipe the board down with some mineral spirits or DNA. I then draw hashes over the glue spots with a pencil and sand the whole thing until the pencil marks are gone.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

exelectrician-

Can you see how this was done?

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

since I started using clamping cauls it is a different world. One can make them and they last forever.
Google Mike Henderson. He has a pictoral on how to make and use them.
It took me about an hour yo mke bunch of them.

-- Jerry

I use culls as most do to help keep the glue ups flat. What most don’t do is buy them from Harbor Frieght. Yup, when HF has a sale on those really cheap alum. carpenter’s levels I but them, put a strip of non stick tape on them and life is good. The I-beam contruction of them makes them very rigid and the alum. makes them light weight.

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

Depends on the project. If the wood is on the expensive side or it’s a project that is going to take a lot of beating, I’d get the ply. But for most projects I’d rather glue up and have a solid wood result. Clamps, Clamps, Clamps never enough

I have had good luck with “equal pressure clamps” from Woodcraft or from Rockler

Equal pressure clamps provide pressure on all 4 surfaces and help keep pieces from sliding out of alignment. I will place them about a foot apart for 1” or less in thickness and closer for thicker pieces. If I feel the need for more clamps, I will place Bessey K-Body clamps between and alternate which side the bar goes on. This does not make for a cheap clamping solution but I have had good results.

For short (width) pieces I use 2×2s, for wider pieces I use hardwood cauls. (The cauls are the wooden part that presses against the face of the wood being glued.) Curve the caul by about 1/8” so that pressure will be applied to the center.

As previously mentioned do something with the wood to keep glue from sticking. (It is very bad form to glue the clamp to the project ;-) LumberJoe mentioned packing tape that works. I use shellac or spray finish. Whenever I am spraying something, or wiping on shellac I put a coat on any new cauls I have made.

-- Jesse, Saint Louis, Missouri

i second the equal pressure clamps. use them and like them.

-- Joel -- http://diversitywoodworks.wordpress.com

Nice photo Russell. Looks great.
Thanks.
I’m doing glue ups as I post this. It’s a 18×39” back and a 22×42 top. So far so good.
How do you get that many pieces together before the glue sets? I have to glue one board at a time and it’s slow going. I’m too slow.

And a 4×8 trailer from HF is on my to buy list.

-- "Actions speak louder than words but not nearly as often." - Mark Twain

cutwork- I like to set them in place and pick each one up and glue the end and attach it in place, then do the next one. I either use a roller, which is always messy, or a flux brush which is a bit slower. I use Titebond II. As long as you can get the glue face against the next board, you have plenty of time, it’s leaving them all glued up till you are finished with the last one that the glue dries out. running a damp rag on the glue-up surface will help the glue spread out to all area’s to be glued.

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

Nearly all of my furniture projects require glue-ups.

I start with flat, square, stock, clamp them together similar to closing a book, and match joint them with a jointer plane.

-- It's all good, if it's wood...

those HF pittsburgh clamps are great, huh? i got loads of em. only ONE time i had the handle strip off. well worth the $

-- Josh - Jacksonville, FL, http://jubinsky.wordpress.com