# clamping angled joints



## stumpknocker (Sep 9, 2010)

Does anybody have a tip for clamping angled joints. Lets say you want pull a joint together that consist of two boards , one cut at 10 degrees and the other cut at 18 degrees that will comprise a joint to a common or center board. If you just place a clamp on the end of each board it simply slips. I know there must be a way around this.


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## stnich (May 24, 2010)

I think I need a little more information. I've clamped angles in a number of different ways. Is there part of the joint that will be cut off? If so you can put a screw where it will be cut off. You can secure clamps on to the pieces and then clamp the clamps to bring the joint together. Lots of ways to do this. More info please.


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## stumpknocker (Sep 9, 2010)

This particular joint comes about on an intersection in the construction of a chair. A seat frame member, chair back and leg. This is an outdoor chair and I can't remember where I got the plans. The original chair was screwed together and I started making the chair with joinery, basically just to see if I could do it. Well, I made two of these things and they are really substantial but this particular area is just maddening to get everything together because it all has to come together at once. Trying to tighten up the joint with clamps is almost impossible. Got to be a better way of getting the clamps to pull straight.


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## bernwood (Aug 19, 2010)

I'm trying to visualize what your talking about and I'm having a hard time. Pictures would be nice for us slow folks… but can you clamp a flat piece on a flat surface so it would stick out beyond the joint? Then you could put pressure. Or can you clamp extra wood on both pieces, butt them. lay a 3rd piece on the inside and put pressure on that.

Pictures would be nice, but I'm thinking all these extra pieces of wood to stop the joint from slipping when applying pressure!


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

I just did a 45 miter joint glue up here : http://lumberjocks.com/PurpLev/blog/23982 you can see clamps in the pictures, but those are only clamping the horizontal and vertical dividers - what actually holds the mitered corners is nothing but blue painters tape.

google about it. its very easy and works great.


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## stnich (May 24, 2010)

I've heard people talk about using surgical tubing for clamping irregularly shaped joints. Also a combination of outriggers with various clamps. Outriggers are a board that is longer/wider that the piece you're camping. You put your clamps on the boards outside of the piece.


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## fussy (Jan 18, 2010)

Two things come to mind, both in the same vein. Glue a caul to each piece angled such that you can get clamps on it securely, then simply cut them off with a bandsaw, jig saw, etc. and clean up. Or, if you don't want to have to cut them off, glue brown paper between the work pieces and cauls, then just knock them off. Still some clean up to do but not as much. Hot melt glue should be strong enough and would work a lot faster. Just the ravings of a old lunatic, but it could work.

Steve


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

Here is something that I made to assist with gluing up miter joints. Perhaps this concept would work for you.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/42291

Also - I recently glued up boards that came end-to-end at a 30 degree angle. I used dowels to strengthen the joint, but I still needed good clamping pressure. I glued wings on each side of each board. Drilled holes through the wings and put dowels through the holes with dowel material on the top and bottom. I then used the dowels for the clamp up (4 clamps - 2 on top and 2 on the bottom). Then I cut the wings off.


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## Gregn (Mar 26, 2010)

Another suggestion would be to make a clamping block that accommodates those angles to clamp the pieces to. This would allow you to get good even clamping pressure, much the same way that clamping squares work.


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## LeeBarker (Aug 6, 2010)

Adding to Greg's idea, you can make the accommodating-angle blocks, lacquer (brush) the contact side, and then put some coarse PSA sandpaper or adhesive treat strip on it so it will grip the surface. Little cleanup.

Like others, I'd enjoy seeing a picture of this. Would it be possible to make a semi-permanent three dimensional fixture to clamp this?

Kindly,

Lee


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

I used to do a lot of coopering and picked up a few tricks.

Best trick for edge gluing angled boards is to joint the
edges straight and use pinch dogs pounded into the ends.

For some stuff the Ulmia-style spring miter clamps work well,
though they do put marks in the work.

Other that that, you'll have to make some inconvenient
jig. You can use biscuits to align edges, which is something
biscuits are well suited to in this sort of application. Another
trick is to hammer little wire nails into the edges and nip off
the heads so the nails become little alignment pins that keep
the joint from slipping around when you put the clamps on.


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