Glue Up Question

[fredbelknap]

I am making a small table and didn't have any thick lumber for the legs. My thought was to glue up the legs using four three sided pieces. The idea was to have the glue joints on the corners of the legs. Cutting the pieces wasn't a problem but how to clamp them is another thing. I'm looking for ideas.

[mlwmerk]

Try masking tape, HD rubber bands, wrapping straps. Of course you already knew that.

[sawduster]

I used some ropes with a stick in tourniquet fashion on some I did that way.

[Beamer]

You know that elastic cellophane stuff they use for securing pallets of stuff? Real stretchy clear plastic stuff. That works pretty well and the glue don't much like stickin' to it. You can get a fair bit of clamping pressure with that stuff

[fredbelknap]

Thanks guys. Never thought of the stretchy stuff, don't know if I can find any around here without driving 100 miles. That and Jerrys' tourniquet might work. I'm like a labador pup when it come to gluing four things at ounce.

[Jim Brown]

Saran Wrap

[TDHofstetter]

You CAN temporarily glue clamping blocks on anywhere, using hot glue. They'll pop back off with a chisel afterwards.

Glue up in pairs, then trim & glue the pairs together. That'll save ya aggravation.

[Ruffnek]

Since the resulting shape will be square or rectangular, I'd use the Saran wrap initially to get everything in position and then use conventional clamps to ensure a tight fit. Like Beamer noted, glue won't stick to the Saran wrap (cellophane).

Two clamps, 90 degrees to each other and spaced at regular intervals...say three sets of two for a short table leg...would allow you to snug up the miters if the lumber is straight. That's basically how I glue up boxes with mitered corners. If the pieces have any warp at all, then it may take more pairs of clamps.

I'd also cut off the end of the "vee" on those four pieces, leaving a small hollow through the leg. That will help ensure a tight fit of the miters.

Edit In: A turning tip... Saran wrap stretched tightly around the circumference also works well to hold a fragile vessel together while hollowing the inside.

[TDHofstetter]

TWO
GOOD
HINTS
THERE!

[fredbelknap]

Thanks Tim / Cody that's the kind of advise I like, simple that even I can understand. I was doing a rough white oak turning a while back and the lip split. In desperation I put some CA in the split and put together a couple water hose clamps and pulled it together. It's still together. I got some of the stretch wrap and some more water hose clamps today.

[rrich]

Fred,
Build a trough (Think like a rain gutter.) the exact width of one of the sides of the legs. Line the trough with wax paper. Do the glue up and assemble the leg. Put a few pieces of scrap cut At the same angle as the legs between the trough sides and the leg. Apply clamping pressure between the scraps and the bottom of the trough. If clamp pressure starts to distort the trough, put a few clamps across the two sides of the trough.

Wax paper is the important part!

[fredbelknap]

Got my legs pretty well glued up. Tried the stretch wrap and four pieces and it worked but was a handful. I made a box and glued up half of a let at a time and it worked a lot easier. Here is a pic.