Watcha Makin'?

[SwampDonkey]

I've used those same clamps on a few projects, they get the job done.

[doc henderson]

nice because it is a clamp and caul all in one.

[Old Greenhorn]

Neat clamps! So they have a name? I'd love to try a pair, but I won't buy from Amazon. Anybody have a link or a source?

[SwampDonkey]

Woodcraft sells'm. Four way pressure clamp.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/woodriver-4-way-pressure-clamping-system

Lee Valley used to carry them I think, I don't see them there any more.

[Old Greenhorn]

Cool! I'll do some shopping when I'm get home and check the condition of my new tool account.

[Wlmedley]

Fulton was the brand name on these and were sold by Peachtree woodworking supply if that helps.

[Larry]

I've used them and also watched folks use them at craft school. My impression is they work well but are awkward and far to slow to use.

My first choice is standard bar clamps alternated top to bottom with about 10" space between clamps.

Second choice when I think alignment will be required or on a big panel is biscuits. Domino's also work great but are too expensive to use just for board alignment.

Third choice is clamp cauls and sometimes supplemented with a "C" clamp at the end of the panel. I have lots of cauls and normally won't place one unless I see a problem pop up.

There is a bit of science in cauls. They should be cambered to work well. Utube has lots of video's about making them with a jointer or hand plane. Some say wax them to keep glue from sticking but I like packing tape better.

[Resonator]

I'm old school, I use bar clamps and pipe clamps for glue ups. Nice thing with pipe clamps, you can make one any long length you need just by using longer pipe.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Sneak peak of a project in the works:


Future deer hunting blind... 
Built with spruce live edge reverse board and batten siding. (I will do a full write up with details and pictures when it's done.)

[aigheadish]

Looks nice Resonator!

[SwampDonkey]

Good and solid, probably withstand a charging bison. 

[RetiredTech]

@Resonator, Looks like we've got the same thing in mind.

[tule peak timber]

Working on another big table. This one is Doug Fir 126 x 52 x 3 inches with 4 inch thick legs and a 6 inch stretcher at the splined joint.

[doc henderson]

Please post pics when the helicopter picks that one up for delivery.     will it go into sections for moving?  Must be for a board room?  very nice.  massive.

[SwampDonkey]

Nobody will ever run off with a southern table.  

[doc henderson]

Rob, what the H E double toothpicks kind a finish is that?  great table!

[aigheadish]

I was wondering the same doc, it that wood made of water? 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes, enquiring minds want to know what and how you got that effect/finish on that wood. What are you suing for a top coat?

[tule peak timber]

The stretcher is a heavily damaged 10 x 10 timber, that I did a little epoxy repair on to get it structurally solid, before shaping into the dog bone end with a split tenon protruding. Pretty rough looking so I went after it with two different sizes of Arbortech carving tools making it look more or less all damaged/ rough.
 The legs are all of the trim/crap defect cut from the slab top and laminated together to form 4 each leg halves that are then shaped to a 1/2 leg template I generated first. A little clean up and the half legs get glued together and precision squared up on the table saw. At this point the leg pieces are as heavy as I can lift without help.
All end and side grain gets attacked with two different Arbortech tools and the flat faces get hundreds of scoops from a curved planer. Next a GF medium brown dye stain with a 15% fixer (Endurovar) is painted on heavily and left to dry.
 Next day a power flat sand, a power soft pad sand, and a hand sand at 220 grit then assembly. There is still  defect correction, glazing, and finishing topcoat to go yet, but the leg set can now be fitted to the leg table bottom jig with accuracy as one piece.
  Topcoat....still tossing that around as which family/method I want to use. Legs not too critical but the slab top will be a heavily used table.     

[Wlmedley]

Tried my new clamps out the other day and made a couple more cutting boards. I think they worked fairly well.Put a piece of hickory in the center and I have some Cherry I'm going to try next. Wife is wanting a ladder to hang some blankets on so I guess I'll see how that works out. Having a planer has made my little projects much easier.

[teakwood]

Rob, do you have fotos of the process when you made the legs? We would all enjoy, sounds interesting 

[Wlmedley]

I cut a nice red oak into 1" sheeting a couple years ago which was supposed to go to a fellow I used to work with.He never came to get it so it's been drying in my shed for at least two years. Now I'm glad he didn't show up because after running through the planer it makes some nice lumber for some of my little projects. Made my wife a ladder to hang blankets or quilts on. I've got plenty of clear lumber but I think knots and other defects add to the look.Tom,this might be something that would sell pretty good as they seem to be popular now for some reason.

[SwampDonkey]

Something like that could come in handy if you're in an area with some rug weavers. They could use a rack to display their rugs at shows. But the market would not be huge because rug weavers are not all that plentiful. There are hot spots around the country though. Even quilters are few and far between these days.

[aigheadish]

I may have posted somewhere up above that I was asked to make some shed doors for my neighbor. Just out of simple plywood sheets and some tubbafors. They bought and had delivered the treated wood supplies and they were very wet so I let them sit around for a bit to dry out, then built them. We then took them to the neighbors house where I suggested they sit for a while under a shelter they have. That was a few months ago. They painted the doors and last weekend we finally got to installing them (kind of). I've ran into a couple issues. 

One is that hinges are a complete mystery to me and maybe I should have investigated the proper way to attach a hinge... It feels like it should be simple but it's usually pretty important that when you start putting holes in wood for hinges that they are correct, so I sat and stared at things for a while. I didn't get it quite right and the doors have a bit of spring to them upon closing. 

Next, on the two door side, I left some overhang on the left door, to close the gap between the doors. Well, I didn't think to create a notch in the right side door to accept that overhang, so the doors wouldn't close all the way. I ended up using the circular saw to remove about a half inch of material to accept the notch and we put the door back on. Well, my measurements were off by maybe 1/8" and daylight can be seen between the doors in an undesirable way. 

To close that gap, the neighbor and I took a 2x4 back to my house where the table saw is, I realized that the 2x4 we picked wasn't as straight as it needed to be to correct the gap issue, so I used some MacGuyver style clamping with straight pieces of wood to coerce the bent one into shape to run it through the table saw. Somehow it worked but it required a lot of force to unbend the wood. 

I took that piece back to the neighbors and installed it. Gap problem solved. Except... it now no longer fit into the notch that I cut out on the right door. Back to the drawing board. I've now decided to add wood to the left door to create the piece needed to close the gap and I may need to increase the width of the notch cut on the right door. 

Oh well, I'm learning. It looks pretty nice and I only have maybe a half hours worth of work to finish it up. The single door, in the picture, is what the previous doors looked like. It has been replaced with another door I made and it hung and works pretty well, though there is still some spring to its closing. 

[Wlmedley]

Brought my blanket ladder in and put it to use. My wife is always saying she's cold and has various blankets laying on the furniture so when we get company they have to be moved in order to set down. Probably just be a dust collector but I got some hung up.

[Resonator]

Like the blanket with pickups haulin' trees!