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Strategies
Lots of tape, lots of cauls and lots of clamps
make glue-ups easy
BY LON S C H L E I N I N G
I
f you don't have complete confi- Before
dence in your gluing systems, per-
haps it's time to take a closer look
you
at them. When I ask a group of wood- squeeze
workers how many trust their glue-ups •Make sure
completely, very few hands pop up. the glue you're
Personally, I couldn't sleep if my gluing using is fresh.
techniques were suspect. When my
stairbuilding shop is really cranking, it •Cut all of your
is not unusual to go through 10 gal. or cauls to the right
12 gal. of glue in a year. That's not length.
much by some standards, but it repre- • Cover the cauls and
sents a fair amount of gluing for a clamping pads with cello-
three- or four-person shop. We've de- phane tape.
veloped systems for gluing that are re-
liable and fast, not so much because • Set clamps to approxi-
we set out to do so, but because we mate length.
have to have reliable glue joints so that • For easy clamp access,
we can sleep at night. set up blocks to elevate the
In this article I'll outline a few com- assembly.
mon gluing situations a woodworker
has to tackle and provide a few tips • Keep a ruler nearby so
When gluing up you can check to see that
that, hopefully, even the seasoned square legs or
woodworker can use. forming the assembly goes together
multisided tubes, squarely.
packing tape
It's easy to test wrapped around • Be sure that clamps are
your gluing system the pieces helps plentiful and within reach.
If a glue joint fails, the first suspect pull the joints
is the glue itself. But the glue is seldom closed. • Do a full dry-run of the
the real problem. Modern glues are so glue-up to eliminate
effective as to be nearly foolproof. surprises.
More often than not, operator error is
the problem, not the glue.
You can easily test both the glue and
Photos, except where noted: Matthew Teague; this page and facing page: Michael Pekovich
your gluing system to increase your
Use store-bought or After the boards have
been aligned with confidence. Simply glue up a sample,
shopmade deep-reach
clamps and clamping cauls clamping cauls, the edge let it cure, then break it apart. If the
to pull the boards into joints of a panel are sample breaks at the joint, you have a
alignment at the center. clamped in place.
problem with the glue or the joint. If
the wood does not break along the
glueline, the test demonstrates that
the joint is stronger than the wood,
which is what you want. If necessary,
keep modifying your system until
you achieve satisfactory results.
straight, then apply cellophane tape to one side. The tape pre- move toward the ends. Feel the alignment of the edges along the
vents the cauls from adhering to the project and allows the glu- joints. Add a new set of cauls any place one board is above anoth-
ing pieces to slide together once they're under control. Start by er. Once the assembly is perfectly flat, use bar clamps to squeeze
putting the lower cauls on blocks so you can get access to them the joints together. The boards slide between the cellophane-
for clamps. Then spread glue on the edges, place the boards into covered cauls with no trouble.
position and begin clamping the cauls down securely. Because the joints fit very nicely, it takes only a little pres-
Start by clamping the caul in the center of the panel. Deep- sure—just enough to make contact between the two boards. Too
reach clamps are great to have, but they're expensive. I find that much pressure forces the glue out of the joint.
a shop-built version works just as well. Just tape a few scraps of If your test glue-up indicates that a joint is stronger than the
wood into a U shape and slide the assembly over the cauls (see surrounding wood already, it's hard to justify using something to
the left photo above). With this setup you can easily clamp the strengthen it further. When you use cauls during a glue-up, most
center of even a 4-ft. panel. After clamping the center cauls, reasons for using dowels, biscuits or splines go out the window.
MITERED FRAMES
Packing tape binds the box. Stranded tape Mitered parts roll up to form a box. After Shopmade blocks allow opposing clamps.
with imbedded fiber has tremendous strength. the pieces have been turned over, glue is Shop-built clamp blocks provide a perpendicu-
Strips of tape are laid on the face side of the spread in the miters, and the box is rolled up. lar pad for the clamps. As opposing clamps
box, keeping everything in place. are tightened, the box is pulled square.
MORTISE-AND-TENON DOORS
TIP
Use inner-
tube strips to
hold laminae
together for
bending. The
strips hold
firmly yet al-
low the bun-
dle to flex as
it bends.