Fast way to glue up laser cut finger joints.

[Joe Hillmann]

I have a couple toolboxes that I designed to be laser cut. The problem is they have about 2000 fingers on them that need to be glued. The first three that I built took about 8 hours each to glue together. There is no way I could sell them and make money. I have tried quite a few methods of gluing them I finally found a method that works, is quick(ish), doesn't cause glue to get on the faces of the parts and nearly as strong as gluing putting a dab of glue one each tab.

I ended up taking titebond II wood watered down (about 3 parts water to 1 part glue) and brushed it onto the inside of the joints after they were taped together. I brush it on very lightly and I can see it getting sucked into the cracks.

The tool boxes now take about 3 hours to assemble and don't require any sanding to remove glue squeeze out. They still take too long to be able to sell them but on less intricate projects this method might make the difference between being profitable or not.

[Kim Vellore]

Joe,
Do you really need so many fingers, maybe with fewer fingers it might be profitable?
Kim

[AL Ursich]

Saw Norm on NYW do something similar to a project and a trick he used was to put masking tape inside on both surfaces that would slightly touch when the joint is put together at 90 degrees....

Thanks for the Tip. Pictures too please.

AL