On 03/02/2010 12:00 PM, Bill wrote:
Following Lew's outline for making a workbench top, I plan to rip some
8-foot, 2 by 8s, with my BS (since I already own one and not a TS yet)
and glue them face-to-face, with the factory milled edge down.
First I'll glue in pairs, then create quads, etc.

Since I started thinking about this I learned about cauls...

Hand-jointing the boards in pairs would make cauls work better when
gluing the boards in pairs, but not after than (unless the boards had
*exactly* the same width, an event which has probability 0).

Any thoughts that may help with my glue-up?

Run the individual boards on edge through the planer before glue-up.
This will ensure even thickness so the cauls work properly.

Glue up multiple boards into subassemblies narrow enough to fit on the
jointer. Up to boards is no problem even with yellow glue. Then run the
subassemblies through again before gluing them together.

Alternately, you could glue one board at a time--this would take longer
but would let you be really careful about keeping it aligned.

Chris