Clamping Cauls

[George Bokros]

u can also make them on a jointer in 30s

I am having trouble seeing how you could make them on a jointer, can anyone shed some light on making them on a jointer?

[Bill Orbine]

I am having trouble seeing how you could make them on a jointer, can anyone shed some light on making them on a jointer?

This link to you tube will give you an idea........ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hKxKagdjpo

[Rick Lizek]

http://www.woodcentral.com/woodworki...-curved-cauls/

Use a sander or hand plane to trim down to the line.
Here's way to do it. Make master caul and use a router and pattern bit to make duplicates. Very easy and quick.

[Dave Zellers]

Natural cauls are cool. Next time you pull a board off the rack that has a nice bow to it, think of it differently.

[Jim Becker]

Like Chris, I have the Bowclamps. Unfortunately, I too often FORGET that I have them. LOL But they'll be getting some action on my current project...

[Pat Barry]

Question - my cauls are shop made but I use a straight caul on the bottom that is thicker and not supposed to bend and the curved caul on the top so as to press the boards against the reference cauls. Is that what you folks do or do you use curved top and bottom?

[Peter Quinn]

He's not saying he can't make the cauls. Not everyone took up woodworking to make jigs for the shop.

At the point where you are paying $25/bf for hard maple cauls....snicker snicker.....its pretty clear not every one is in wood working for the same reason. Lots of room for everyone in the pool. I get piles of catalogues monthly filled with gadgets and gizmos meant to facilitate or improve the wood working experience, all at a relatively heavy price tag. Every hobby has its gear, every profession has its tools. Every wood worker had the right to buy what ever gear they want to pursue the endeavor.....and the rest of us reserve the right to poke fun at them for spending piles of cash on shiny over priced gimmicks.

Before I buy anything I run a quick cost benefit analysis. There are oodles of videos on making a tenon jig for the table saw, its certainly possible, when I ran the numbers it was cheaper to throw $100 at a machined iron jig on a time and materials basis. But cauls? It takes me maybe 8 minutes and a trip to the scrap bin to make all the cauls for a giant assembly....I could spend $1000 buying the same, add to that not every assemble is the same size, so I would have to buy that many in each length. I question and reject the very central assumption to the bowcaul sales pitch, that there is some perfect arc that can only be constructed using a cnc and making your own will result in faulty assemblies do to voids in clamping pressure. Phoey. When its absolutely critical...and it almost never is.....I have a roll of cork I bought real cheap.....quick spray of 3M super 77....now I have cork lined cauls that take up any voids and equalize pressure! Pushes my cost up to almost $.50/caul, but I'm worth it. I guess if I were making $750/hour my calculations might be different...thats right about the point that purchasing cauls would start to make sense for me.

[dan petroski]

I use 4 pieces of unistrut with long bolts and wing nuts and springs to separate the pairs. Handy and assembled all the time. I imagine I've used them for 40 yrs with good success. Dan

[Al Launier]

Made my own of ash and maple. 2', 3' & 4'. Bent them into a bow and trimmed off the ends to create the "supposed perfect" arc. Don't know if that is entirely true or necessary, but they work just fine. Used a method similar to that of post 11 of thread http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...Clamping-Cauls. A bit of effort, but appears to be well worth it

Clint.

Clever indeed!

[jack duren]

At the point where you are paying $25/bf for hard maple cauls....snicker snicker.....its pretty clear not every one is in wood working for the same reason. Lots of room for everyone in the pool. I get piles of catalogues monthly filled with gadgets and gizmos meant to facilitate or improve the wood working experience, all at a relatively heavy price tag. Every hobby has its gear, every profession has its tools. Every wood worker had the right to buy what ever gear they want to pursue the endeavor.....and the rest of us reserve the right to poke fun at them for spending piles of cash on shiny over priced gimmicks.

Before I buy anything I run a quick cost benefit analysis. There are oodles of videos on making a tenon jig for the table saw, its certainly possible, when I ran the numbers it was cheaper to throw $100 at a machined iron jig on a time and materials basis. But cauls? It takes me maybe 8 minutes and a trip to the scrap bin to make all the cauls for a giant assembly....I could spend $1000 buying the same, add to that not every assemble is the same size, so I would have to buy that many in each length. I question and reject the very central assumption to the bowcaul sales pitch, that there is some perfect arc that can only be constructed using a cnc and making your own will result in faulty assemblies do to voids in clamping pressure. Phoey. When its absolutely critical...and it almost never is.....I have a roll of cork I bought real cheap.....quick spray of 3M super 77....now I have cork lined cauls that take up any voids and equalize pressure! Pushes my cost up to almost $.50/caul, but I'm worth it. I guess if I were making $750/hour my calculations might be different...thats right about the point that purchasing cauls would start to make sense for me.

Here again it's a choice. You could make many things and save money or you could just purchase a dedicated accessory. I'm a poor furniture maker by trade but won't snicker at someone for purchasing an accessory to there hobby or trade that I feel I can make myself. We are all different when it comes to + or - accessories for the shop

I actually have access to a couple morbidelli CNC's but don't use them for these things. Buying BowClamps just aren't that expensive. It's a choice....

[Chris Padilla]

.....and the rest of us reserve the right to poke fun at them for spending piles of cash on shiny over priced gimmicks.

Not really, Peter. We want a friendly site for ANYONE of ANY skill level to visit. I value your opinion but there is no reason to make fun of someone wanting to buy something that they'll think might aid their woodworking. Now if you want to suggest an alternative, that is great! THAT is what this site is for but lets keep things friendly as much as possible. It doesn't take much these days for things to be taken wrong and go downhill quickly. Practice just a tad of restraint and keep criticisms constructive and friendly and it does go a long way.

[Chris Padilla]

Question - my cauls are shop made but I use a straight caul on the bottom that is thicker and not supposed to bend and the curved caul on the top so as to press the boards against the reference cauls. Is that what you folks do or do you use curved top and bottom?

Pat, it depends on your clamping situation. In some cases, your straight caul may be just find but in others, it might bend a bit and cause a lack of pressure along its length. Most of the time I use cauls in pairs and in opposition to each other. You just need to analyze your particular case and see what happens.

[George Bokros]

This link to you tube will give you an idea........ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hKxKagdjpo

I watched this video and I do not see how you get a taper doing this. To me it looks like you will have a high spot in the middle and the remainder of each end is 1/32 narrower. If I am correct you will not get clamping pressure over the full length of the caul, am I correct? May be you don't need even pressure, I would think want even pressure the full length.

My idea if I make some is to layout a taper and cut the taper on the bandsaw then plane smooth to the line on the jointer. Now you have an even taper. Not likely as quick but you would have consistent contact the full length of the caul.

The other thought is to by oen pair and use a flush trim router bit to make more using the purchased set as a template. If I made one more set the cost would be 1/2 and if I made two more it would be 1/3.

[Bill Orbine]

I watched this video and I do not see how you get a taper doing this. To me it looks like you will have a high spot in the middle and the remainder of each end is 1/32 narrower. If I am correct you will not get clamping pressure over the full length of the caul, am I correct? May be you don't need even pressure, I would think want even pressure the full length.

My idea if I make some is to layout a taper and cut the taper on the bandsaw then plane smooth to the line on the jointer. Now you have an even taper. Not likely as quick but you would have consistent contact the full length of the caul.

The other thought is to by oen pair and use a flush trim router bit to make more using the purchased set as a template. If I made one more set the cost would be 1/2 and if I made two more it would be 1/3.

Experiment is one of the best teacher...... go see for yourself! Safely please! You saw how one man does his cauls, now time for you to try it!

[George Bokros]

Any one use this system

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/125...ng-system.aspx

Thanks