Glue up of face to face boards

[Los_Lobos]

Good morning, the bottom rail on the hall bench I am working on is 1 1/8" wide and the white oak I have is 3/4". It needs a groove cut down the middle to accept the tongue and groove face boards. It will be 42"L. Can I glue two 3/4 oak face to face and then plane them down to the proper thickness?

Thanks, Les

[brburns]

Yes, it will take a but load of clamps though. I have done it.

[TDHofstetter]

Another way to clamp it is with a stack of concrete blocks (buffered with cardboard) over a VERY VERY FLAT surface. Concrete floor, again buffered with cardboard?

[art3427]

layup the boards with either both heart sides glued together or both sap sides. Also try and plane them so that both "parts" are the same thickness in the finished product. This will help balance any stresses in the final product.

art

[Los_Lobos]

Thanks, I have plenty of clamps so will give it a try. Will go heart to heart or sap to sap and plane the same amount off both sides.

Thanks Les

[Stretch]

Use some cauls between the clamp pads and the boards to distribute the clamp pressure so you won't have to use as many clamps. Use plenty of glue. I shoot for a 1/16" line of glue squeeze out when I face glue boards to guarantee that I used enough glue. Also don't be scared to tighten your clamps as much as possible. I crank mine down almost as hard as I can.

[TDHofstetter]

Another thing... don't just spread the glue around with whatever. Take a credit card or something similar and nip one edge with a pair of pinking shears. Don't notch for the full depth of the pinking shears, you only want the notches about 1/8" deep at most. Use THAT to spread the glue. It'll act like a tiling trowel, giving you a very uniform corrugated layer of glue averaging less than 1/16" thick over the entire surface. No dry spots, no big glue pockets.