# Clamping Board



## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

As you probably know from another recent post - I'm recovering from cervical surgery. At 8 weeks out things are looking up as far as healing.

My surgeon has recommended to keep my lifting limit way down - like 20 pounds in an emergency but 10-15 pounds is probably best. With the various joint issues I've had, I will not be straying from his weight limit. The other issue is the exertion needed to do some of the processes we use in woodworking. These two things puts me to a little disadvantage in the shop. So I'm investigating some low exertion, lighter weight options that will keep me in my shop making sawdust for the next 30 or 40 years - just kidding - I'd be pushing 100 so 30-40 not realistic. I'd be happy with 20 years more shop time.

So to get on with the matter. I'm looking at clamping options. I have a relatively small shop. Yes I pretty much use my whole house as a shop but realistically where I do the clamping is not so large. As you know when you glue up a large cutting board you can really push the weight up with the larger clamps. i admit to probably being an over clamper so some of the weight is just my paranoia that I'm not using enough clamps.

I've been trolling the internet and I've found Izzy Swan! Dang that guy's got a lot of good ideas. I've watched this particular YouTube post - 



. I'd like to get others opinions about how this board works. Has anyone else tried this type of clamping board? What are your thoughts pro or con?

What I'm trying to get is a way to clamp my boards in a way that I can stack one glue up on top of another. That way I can glue up multiple boards but not need to lift them off the gluing table.

I'd very much like to hear your thoughts on this type of clamping board.

Thanks in advance


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

I'm happy to hear you're getting better. I watched the video and found it interesting. There seemed to be a lot of screwing to get it fitted to the panel being glued up. Of course, if you're making lots of standard size panels, that's not an issue.

The video that intrigued me the most was the one that followed it: 



 Pretty neat idea. It was funny because when he was tapping the wedges to tighten them I was thinking, just use a small clamp. Then he showed doing that.

They look lighter weight overall too. The weight of a clamping board, with a panel clamped in it might start to add up, but if you're planning to just stack them, I guess that's not an issue.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the second video seemed to have one weakness in that the straight boards aren't shaped like a true caul to distribute pressure across the panel. I think this could be taken care of by using wedges (shims) much like the Izzy Swan clamping board video showed. I also think you need more than two of the clamps for panels longer than maybe 12 or 14 inches.


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## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

Thanks Rich. I think I do like Sergio's idea better. Lot less material involved. I agree with you on the number of clamps for longer boards. Since most of my board glue-ups start at 36" I think three would be better. All of my boards are just shy of 13" so I'm sure I can make some standard clamps.

As far as a caul I like the shim idea. Most of my glue ups are pretty flat to start with so I usually don't have a problem with one board higher than another - at least most of the time. For the odd one the shims will probably work fine.

For the The stacking part I've not figured out what I will do to make that happen. With the bolts sticking up you really can't stack them in a straight line up. I might need to figure out a rack of some sort. I need to give that a little more thought.

Thanks for your input Rich.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

You may not have room for something like this but just throwing it out there-









Here's a link to the picture-
http://blog.woodshopbits.com/category/clamping-glueing/


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## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

I wish I had that kind of space. It looks like a pretty good system. Thanks Lew.

Betsy


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