Need some glue up advice.

[Mike Cutler]

Need a little advice on a glue on up I need to do.
The first picture shows all the pieces that need to glue together. There are 20 M&T joints that all have to go together. The smaller vertical pieces do not get glued. I thought about gluing up in 2 seperate sequences but the alignment of all the M&T's and the squaring of the 3 stile pieces is pretty critical. I'm worried about not having enough time to glue, fit and align everything. I have Titebond Extend for the glue up, but I am completely open to suggestions of another product that has a longer open time.
The second picture shows the pieces dry assembled in the clamping frame I made for this glue up.
The M&T's are fairley well done. When dry assembled everything is within a 16th, but as I said the alignment need to be "dead on. The dimensions of everything assembled are 21" x 32".
Thanks in advance for the help

[Mark Singer]

Just do half....one side first and let it dry then do the other. Then you gan go to regular Titebond 3 and open and do the second side in about 2 hours.

[Dennis Peacock]

If it were me? I'd be using liquid hide glue as it takes less glue and holds very well, reversible (set joint can be undone with water and heat), has longer open time that any Titebond...even over Extend (a whole 8 minutes of open time). The only glue that I have ever found to be slower than any titebond I, II or even III is a glue I bought from Garrett Wade supplier called Slo-Set Glue and the stuff has at least a 20 minutes open time and I've never had a joint come loose or break with Slo-Set Glue. But now, I use Franklin's Liquid Hide Glue on almost everything I make. I used to use and still have Titebond I, II and III in my shop but I have fallen in love with LHG!!!!

Motor finger mode off now... ...Like Mark suggested, do 1/2 of it, let dry for 2 hours and then do the other half. One thing that helps me to this type glue up is to make a 90° "form" on your benchtop that is an "L" shape large enough to hold 3/4 of the length and the full width of the bottom. Use wax paper between your project and the form to prevent gluing your project to the form. Glue up from one side and continue gluing up, once you have quickly glued everything together, press the whole thing against and into the "L" shaped form. This will put your project at 90° (providing your form is ninety degrees! ) and will be very close square. Clamp it up using the form as part of your clamping jig and let set until cured.

So there....really confused now?

[Mike Cutler]

Thanks for the quick response guy's. I put both of your ideas together. I did a dry run on a two step glue up, and incorporated the reference "L". I changed the clamping frame to allow me to incorporate the "L" and offset the clamps so I could do the two step, and reference everything without releasing pressure.
Dennis I was going to try the Hide glue, but all the bottles on the shelf had 9/04 expiration dates. I'll pick some up for the next project though, thanks for the tip.
Once again guys thanks. I've been waiting for a break in the weather since December to restart this project, and finally got it this weekend.

[David Fried]

Mike,

Sounds like you got good advice but I'm a little slow. What is it?

Dave

[Mike Cutler]

David. I'm not sure if you are asking what the advice was? or what the project is?.
I had been struggling with the actual gluing method for some time. Believe it or not, there is alot of time invested in that one section, and I was kinda afraid of blowing it at the very end. Dennis and Mark pointed out the obvious, which was to glue it up in two sections, and make a form to keep it aligned during both processes. Sometimes you look at something and make it mentally more complicated than it has to be.
The project is an integrated floor to ceiling, wall to wall, desk bookshelf made of brazillian cherry(Jatoba). Approximate dimensions are 10' long 29" wide and 7' tall. The piece in the post is one of the lower end supports, there are two. these pieces will support the lower shelves and desktop. The shelves will actually extend beyond the supports thru the gaps in the end pieces as a form of a split thru mortise, tusk tenons will hold the shelves tight. On top of these supports will set a desktop with bookshelves on top of that. All of this will frame a window that looks out into our back yard.
I've been working on it since last June, but with work and weather the progress is slow. All the pieces are big, and heavy, and the whole thing has to fit together like a chinese puzzle at the end, so the joinery has to be very exact. I guess I just got a little intimidated and needed a clearer voice.

[Alan Turner]

Mike,
A big guy to glue up. As to glue, and sectional gluing, others have given good counsel. One glue with long open time is Unibond 800, about an hour if you leave it in a tin pie plate. A couple of other tips:
-- Instead of wax paper, use packing tape (the cheap stuff) on your cauls, forms, etc.

-- Also, use blue masking tpae to tape your cauls in place before spreading glue as this will save you the need for a 5th hand.

Good luck.