We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
Many beginners make gluing up panels a lot harder than it should be.
They add biscuits or splines for alignment, which can also cause some mis-alignment if you aren’t careful with your machines or match planes.
They also purchase or build curious jigs for keeping the panel joints aligned as they apply pressure.
In my opinion, all these things make the process take longer, which means your glue can set up while you are fiddling around.
This video shows how I do it. I’m using liquid hide glue here, but you use the same procedures for any glue – yellow, white or moose-based.
— Christopher Schwarz
Would you like a fire hose of this sort of information? Then get the Popular Woodworking Magazine 2000-2010 CD. This has all of the stories from the magazine in a searchable .pdf format – more than 6,000 pages of stories (that doesn’t count the ads). I keep these issues on my laptop and refer to them almost every day for something.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
Thanks for breaking this down to something nice and simple. Oh and …
NEEEE! 🙂
I like simplicity! I tend to have so many moving parts in a glue up that something goes wrong too often. simple simple simple
There is no mention of a strength consideration when gluing these panels. If downward weight in the middle is expected (such as with a bench sear for example, would it not be better to use biscuits or pocket screws?
Wax paper! A single strip under those clamps would have meant no floor cleanup. Or plastic wrap. Or plastic shopping bags. Or…
Especially on a nice wood floor like that!
Is the joint a spring joint Chris?
Chris, I love the hi-tech tool you use to spread the glue. That’s how I learned from my shop teacher back in the day. Just remember folks, you don’t want to do that with a CA or polyurethane glue.
You’re working on the floor!? Is that a Japanese thing or what….???
Sigh… I had completely bought into the 1000 psi “knowledge” about clamp pressure. No wonder I was having trouble with bowed panels.
PS The singer and banjo sounded like Richard Hood (personal friend) of the old Bristol Brothers, but I don’t remember him playing with someone playing a harmonica. Who were the artists?
Dang that moose!
Good music too.
And oh yeah, good glue up tip!
Thanks Chris.
Ok, so I read your books about building my own bench so I wouldn’t have to work on the floor anymore. Now you’re back to working on the floor again? What gives? 😉
There was a time when I traveled the less developed world quite a bit. Although not looking for any woodworking type of activity, twice I saw folks simply prop the bottom board between rocks, stack glue soaked boards on top and let gravity do the rest.
This method works great with parallel clamps, but pipe clamps can cause the panels to lift in the middle. The best way to counteract this tendency is to use a couple more clamps with the bars on the top of the panel.
Ken
What’s the bucket for? BTW, my sister was almost run over by a moose. Sisters… they’re good for moose bait.
Jonathan
=============================
Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?
Just wondering why you don’t add a clamp of two to the top of the boards to prevent cupping or twist? Or isn’t this a problem with that type of clamp? Also wondering about the lack of newspaper under the glue lines to prevent black marks on the boards? Cheers:)
What clamps are you using? BTW: it would be great to hear your opinion on clamps. Thanks!
Obviously, this only works with parallel clamps.
When you wipe the glue, doesnt that cause problems with finishing the surface? Could I mask the edges?
And unfortunately due to recent events in Zanesville, there is no longer a future in moose choreography in southern Ohio.
Had to register just so I could offer kudos for the Monty Python reference. I already thought this was the best woodworking blog around. Now it’s just gotten infinitely better.
Psst! I think a møøse hijacked Megan’s account! Møøse posts can be pretty nasti, too.
–Ralph, the Wonder Llama
Snort.