Panel glue up

[Noho12C]

Hello,

Wanted to know how you manage your panel glue up ? Do you simply use regular clamps and fiddle a bit until everything is flat, or do you use some special clamps ?

I was gluing some panels yesterday with clamps and struggled to get them flat. Finally managed by clamping wooden sticks on top and below (forgot the name of it..), but a bit of a pain when you have many to do.

Do you have any point of view about 4 way clamps ? (https://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+new-arriv ... ands+r3071) or any other system ?

Thanks,
Chris.

 

[Sam R]

Biscuits, dominos or loose ply tongue in stopped (or thru) grooves. Dowels, accurately located, will also do it.

The thing you link to just looks like a pain in the arris. At that price I doubt it would be quality too.

 

[AndyT]

For a comprehensive treatment of the subject, have a read of Custard's guide here
how-to-edge-joint-t112936.html

P.S. I don't think you'll spot any special gimmicky clamps.

 

[powertools]

Farmer Giles did a recent review on those clamps and he seems to be happy with them. Personally I just clamp a length of 40x40 box section steel over both sides of the panel and use normal sash clamps to pull them together.

 

[MikeG.]

Which is fine, but the upshot of the glue and steel combination is nasty black splodges on your work. I just use a couple of bits of wood from the scrap pile.

 

[Noho12C]

Thanks for the link to Custard's explanation. That's very clear and well written.
I have no issues with edging the boards, but the clamps tend to bend the piece.

I think I will try with battens to support the work piece. Didn't think of that, but seems like a great idea !

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[Steve Maskery]

If you use the box-section steel trick, wrap them with parcel tape first.

How thick are these panels? This ones are more difficult than thick, but if your edge-jointing is good, you don't actually need a lot of pressure. It also helps to alternate the clamps above and below, rather than all on one side of the panel. Like this:

 

[AndyT]

Fwiw, I think the simple board with a pair of cross-battens and folding wedges is actually a very good solution. Very stable and controllable. You can prevent glue sticking by use of parcel tape.

 

[Noho12C]

and folding wedges is actually a very good solution.

what do you mean by folding wedges ?

Also, as stated by Steve, maybe I should go easy on the pressure. Might be a bit too heavy handed..

 

[AndyT]

Pairs of wedges that are parallel on the outside. Like this

Or this

 

[Noho12C]

I see. That might indeed hep. Thanks !

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[thetyreman]

I am gradually replacing all my cheap aluminium clamps with bessey ones, personally I've never found the need to get proper panel clamps, the key is all in the jointing and getting that spot on, it shouldn't take much pressure at all with a perfect joint, in fact you could use a rub jointed hide glue joint and no clamps at all and it'll hold for hundreds of years.