Stupid Question #53,978 - large panel glue up jig

[Dennis Peacock]

I realize that I ask a lot of dumb questions at times but I'm still a learning woodworker who enjoys his craft until he has to do a large glue up for things like large kitchen tables or large and long work tables for local business offices. With all that said......Who here has lots of experience and a working jig setup for gluing up table tops like 48" wide by 12' long by 2" thick?

I'd like to build a setup to where I can just stack boards in a jib with glue, close up the jig, clamp tightly, and walk away for 24 hours to come back later with a nice flat and straight top to be taken out of the clamps.

Advice, tips, pointers, and plans are all accepted and appreciated.

[Bill Graham]

Something like this: http://www.ptreeusa.com/panel_glue_up.htm ?

I found this thread and lots of other info by Googling "panel clamping jig": http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...r-clamping-jig

[Dennis Peacock]

Thanks Bill....!!! I'll for sure look all that over. Much appreciated.

[Peter Quinn]

How wide are the individual boards? My strategy in a small shop would be to first glue up three sections of 16" wide each, clean these up post glue up, then you have only 2 joints on the final glue up. For the final glue up, some shop made cauls will keep it flat while it dries. I like to make the bottom caul of each pair flat, the top caul bowed by jointing from center out to each end a light 1/32" , this keeps the center in tension, or you can glue a small shim to each end and drive wedges under the top caul at each intersection, this is pretty old school but works well. I can't imaging making a jig that large unless this was a pretty regular thing and you had room to store such a thing when not in use. At the last job I glued up literally hundreds of tops over the years with nothing more than a few cauls, some saw horses and some pipe clamps. Always joint adjacent boards one face in/one face out to cancel any fence errors off 90, don't get excessive with the glue, glue one edge of each intersection sufficiently to wet both edges when rubbed together but not look like a glue volcano erupting...and clamp up alternating one under, one over. Doesn't hurt to have a second person to help hold the clamps on a 48" top, but its not essential. Always cover the cauls with cellophane packing tape, no wax transfer and doesn't stick to glue.

Those plano presses are great if large tops are a regular things for you, but thats over $1200 worth of speciality clamps and the wall space to effectively use them, the same thing can be achieved with scraps.

[Rick Lizek]

Google curved clamping cauls.
Been using them over 40 years. Make them out of scrap wood and use your regular clamps. I've glued up 4 x 8 panels myself in one piece. Best kept secret in woodworking.

[Dennis Peacock]

Peter and Rick......
Thank You for those tips, advice, and pointers. I don't know why, but I seem to get asked to do table tops that are over 40" wide and over 7' long. I would just like having a way to glue all this up without needing 20,000 clamps and better reducing the "glue stress" of trying to get it all glued and clamped up before the glue starts to set.

[Andrew Hughes]

I've done a couple big tables over 7ft can't remember how wide they were,My hot ticket suggestion is thin the glue a little bit and roll the edges with a foam or short knapp roller.When the glue is thick just seems to talk more clamps to squeeze out.If you get both sides wet i don't think the joint can ever get starved.The other strategies I use are too hard to describe and would sound confusing.Good luck sounds like fun.Aj

[Mike Heidrick]

JLT camp rack will get you to 40".

[Ray Newman]

In the past, I have utilized these panel clamps: http://www.ponytools.com/index.php/pony/pipe-clamps

Not exactly cheap, but well worth. Evenly distributed pressure and works with either thin or thick stock.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Peter has some important points - especially on jointing faces that need to mate.

Beyond that - The pucker factor for me would peg the needle trying to do this in one shot. I do it one joint at a time....but only wait 60 minutes or so before going on to the next joint. Using top & bottom cauls, and alternating pipe clamps over/under - I never need more than a card scraper to finish the joints.

[Brian Tymchak]

Has anyone tried this style of 4 way clamps? If they work it seems that it might be scaleable to large tops.

I was also thinking that maybe there is some way to combine a panel gluing frame with a panel saw that would keep the boards in alignment during clamping. Hmm, I'll have to give that some more thought. Could be handy. I could use both.

[John A langley]

Brian yes I have I have four you can have for free personally I think they're a pain in the butt