I have been making my own boxes for the last few builds. For the box top, I've bee using an 8" x 10" piece of luan and laminating the exposed side with veneer.
I will be receiving some thin hardwood in the mail, approx 4" wide x 10" long (plus a little extra for cutoff) x 3/16" thick. I will need to glue the 10" sides together for a solid box top. Any recommended methods for this?
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Thanks Mark. I'm pretty happy with the fence & weight method and will probably stick with that in the future.
Oily: I did a top and back with both walnut and canary wood.
Those peices are thick enough to mention a fourth method that may work for you, though the joint may not come out quite as tight.
Lay the pieces flat, apply masking tape to the joint and then fold it open, apply glue and close, lay it flat and apply caul and weight, then clamp edges snug as in one of the above images.
The masking tape may get glued on, and the edges may need a little more scraping/sanding this way, but its simple.
Dave,
Now I see what you were trying to do: bookmatching. You shoulda said ;-) Those look great; what's the wood?
Came out looking great! those will make some nice box tops.
I ended up doing a combination of methods 2 & 3. I used 1x2s clamped to a flat piece of plywood as the fence. Then I used a piece of 3/4" angle to prop up the two inner edges, applied glue to one edge, and pulled the angle away while pressing the glued edges down towards the plywood. A couple of times, the edges weren't exactly lined up, so I used a hammer to lightly tap them together. I like this method because I was able to clean the glue off of the exposed seam immediately. in one of the four glue ups I did today, the edges were popping up, so I just weighed them down with a cinder block.
All four glueups turned out well. They are flat and even on the top. The backs were a little uneven which makes me thnk the two pieces were not exactly the same thickness. These are the sides that will face the inside of the box, so no big deal
Thanks for all the great reccommendations.
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I tried method 1 without success. Instead of using the bolts on the end, I was using clamps. After letting the glue set up for 20 minutes, I pulled the 1x2s off but left the pressure on the outside edges. The glued edges weer not lined up in the middle. I tried a couple of times and did not have any luck.
Looks like I can only attach 3 pics per post. I'll add three more in the next post.....
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3rd old school and simple method, as taught to me years ago. I have been meaning to upload a short vid on this next time I do one this way.
Description:
Use a piece of MDF or similar flat board to lay it out on.
Joint edges using whatever method you have to get a straight airtight glue edge.
Lay out a peice of wax paper, and prop up the joint line with a scrap strip under the glue line. (experiment with thickness but about 3/8" or so should do it. the needed thickness varies a little with material width.)
With the edges to be glued butted together, either drive a row of small nails along each outside edge, or nail/screw a caul block or strip down each side.
Lift up the edges and lightly apply the glue of your choice, (I prefer Titebond for this, but opinions vary.) Reposition the pieces as before, butted together.
Slide the strip from under the glue line and press the pieces down flat. (the fit should be snug, but not so tight as to possibly cause any buckling.)
Lay a piece of wax paper on top, and a caul strip or block, and if needed, a little weight to make sure everything lays flat and allow to dry.
Upon removal from the jig, Depending on the wood species, I usually just lightly scrape the glue line with a small sharp cabinet scraper for cleanup.
Good luck and be sure to show us how it works out for you!
Mark
Both great ideas, thanks! Whatever way I go, I will try to post pics.
Joint the glue edges straight. Make a clamping caul out of two pieces of 1x2 and long bolts or all thread.
Use the caul along your joint glue line with wax paper to keep it from sticking. Tighten the caul just snug enough to keep your boards flush to each other, then clamp from the sides. Some dadoed clamp block would go along way to help your clamps stay on the 3/16 boards.
Its way simpler than I can write it, hope that helps. The main thing in getting a good joint will be having a straight and square edge at your glue line.
How to glue thin stock.bmp
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