I do alternate my clamps. I've just never had them do a perfect job of
keeping the joints perfectly aligned. I've tried dowels, too, and that
doesn't work either. I don't have a biscuit machine, but I wouldn't expect
it to work perfectly either. Do you hear how often I use the word
"perfect"? I'm just hoping to do the best I can. This thread is all part
of preparing the wood.
This wood was mostly rough cut when I got it. After removing nails it has
been planed once, on a planer whose blades needed sharpening. A couple of
the boards still have a little extra thickness, so I'll plane them again. I
do expect to do some sanding, but I'm trying to minimize that step.
Sorry, I woke up at 5am thinking about this stuff, so I posted my message
and got busy. I did bring home five sheet goods from Home Depot (that stuff
isn't getting any lighter as I age), plus a few 2x4s, and some of that is
for this project, so I still made progress today. But now I'm way too
tired. Company's coming tomorrow, and the Ottawa Robotics Enthusiasts meet
on Monday. I'll try to squeeze in some progress before church and work, but
I make no promises as this is MY hobby.
I'll also try to get those pictures posted; the camera's batteries ran out
before I could upload them, and then they wouldn't take a charge. The new
batteries are in the charger now.
Thanks to all for the great feedback.
- Owen -
"Dave Gordon" d@p wrote in message
...
Didn't want to snip the other good advice, but concerned my advice would
get lost at the bottom, so I top posted he
Try alternating your clamps, above and below the piece. Even the stiffest
bar clamp will bend slightly under tension, leading to the jaws opening
slightly (in the sense of becoming non-parallel), and causing the glued
pieces to tend to pop up.
Agree about doing it in stages too. Less wet glued joints to slide and
pop, and easier to keep the pieces even.
"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:Q3xEi.94$1n1.70@trnddc02...
Owen Lawrence wrote:
Hi. After all these years I've never had the occasion to glue
up a large panel. Well now's my chance. I've done small ones that
turned out fine, but there's no chance of a do-over this time
because I'll be consuming most of my 100 year old pine. This is
for a captain's bed headboard and footboard. Both panels will be
over 30" wide, roughly dimensioned.
I'd suggest that you do your panels in stages...glue up 3 - 10" +-
wide sections then (after drying) glue those three. Reasons...
1. MUCH easier to keep flatter
2. Less worry about glue open time.
It certainly isn't impossible to glue up the whole schmeer at once but
you'll find that it isn't all that easy...boards want to slide around
(glue lubricates)...unequal tension between clamps tends to bow the
work...if an edge happens to be a smidge off square, that will be
easier to handle in a narrower glueup.
__________________
I lay the boards on my pipe clamps and just sitting there, some
of them mate perfectly with their neighbours. But one or two
boards have the slightest bow. I'm thinking I can clamp a pair of
pine cauls on each edge to pull them back. I'll cover the seams
with wax paper so I don't end up gluing the cauls to the panel with
the squeeze-out. Any objections?
If I can't push them in alignment with my hand, I use a handscrew to
pinch them flat with their neighbor. Once I have them flat and apply
lateral pressure from a pipe clamp I take off the handscrew.
___________________
I won't be staining this wood, but I haven't decided on a
finish. (Please help me do that.) Should I apply the finish to the
outer surfaces first, before the glue-up, so the squeeze-out
doesn't doesn't fill in the pores?
It sounds like you expect to glue up your panel, take off the clamps
and finish it. Good luck.
There are times when pre-finishing is a good idea. This isn't one of
them.
__________________
I see Norm always wiping it
away with a damp sponge, like the instructions on the bottle, but I
can never seem to get at what's under the pipe clamps. This time
there will be 11 of them, alternating under and over the panel.
What do you usually do?
I expect to take off the clamps, scrape off the dried beads of glue
and then run the panel through a drum sander several times to get it
flat. IOW, I expect the result of the glue up to be *rough*.
__________________
I've got half a bottle of Lee Valley cabinet maker's glue left,
and a new bottle of yellow carpenter's glue. (Side question; is
there any difference between LV cabinet maker's glue and Titebond
III? It's almost irrelevant because I can't find Titebond III
anywhere around Ottawa except LV.) Since this is such a visible
part of the project, should I prefer white glue?
No, do not use the white glue, use the yellow. White tends to creep
when dry.
_____________________
Finally, this project is going to have to have a rustic look,
because these boards were reclaimed from a demolition; they were
the walls of an old house, and are full of nail holes and gouges.
I intend to post some pictures of the bedpost blanks I've prepared
to a.b.p.w, since I'm quite proud of them. But a few of the boards
destined for these large panels have some ugly looking tearouts,
gouges where the aggressive contractor must have used a crowbar.
And there are a few large knots and splits threatening to leave the
scene later. I'm thinking about filling them with epoxy. Good
idea? Bad idea? Alternatives?
Gouges, splits and knots are rustic. Personally, I'm not a rustic fan
so I'd work on them. But not with epoxy. All that does is give you a
cavernous looking hole that has been filled with something clear.
If I were doing it I'd use sawdust, sanding dust, planer shavings and
glue. If the hole were more than, say, 1/8 deep I'd fill to that
depth with polyester resin. Why polyester rather than epoxy? It sets
up in minutes rather than hours and is cheaper.
Then I mix up some of the wood residue mentioned earlier and mix in
some white glue. When it is putty like, push into hole, overfilling
slightly. Put a piece of wax paper over it and clamp on something
flat (I use scrap mel board). The different wood particle sizes
(saw/sand dust and planer shavings) all give a different appearance.
All will resemble particle board. When in doubt, use saw and sanding
dust.
Once dry - TOTALLY dry - take off the clamp and flattener and sand
flat. There may well be some pin holes, not to worry. Put a dab of
white glue on your finger and smear a *very light* coat over the area.
Then take a pinch of FINE sanding dust, drop it onto the wet glue,
take a breath and blow off all you can. Now - while the glue is still
wet - sand again with a palm sander. I usually use #150 paper. If
you do this right you'll wind up with a patch that has a thin surface
of wood dust that is bonded to the area below but which is not sealed
with glue and which will take a finish fairly well. It works best in
smallish areas. More than one repetition may be necessary. You have
to use white glue...white glue isn't waterproof and the smeared on
glue will bond with that in the "major fill" portion.
Of course, you can also mix wood particles with any bonding agent and
fill with that. Bonding agents include polyester and epoxy resins,
any glue including super glue, varnish, lacquer, shellac, etc. The
appearance of the patched area depends upon how much the bonding agent
"wets" the wood and the size of the wood particles.
_________________
Should I learn to make a dutchman?
Useful to be able to do so but - to my eye - they generally look no
better than just filling. Different but not better. What might be
useful for you are butterflies for those splits.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
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