I thought some of the other wood board builders might benefit from my homemade panel clamps. I am building hollow wood paddleboards so my panels are really large. The 4-way clamps are really fast and accurate. The top half of the clamp is a curved caul and the bottom in straight to keep the pressure even in the center. I have made these clamps 36" long to fit my largest panels. The linkage is 1/8" thick flat bar. The center pivots are made from 1 1/4" steel flat bar. They work really well at keeping everything in perfect alignment. Hope this info helps some others builders that have more time than money. I was able to make 18 for about $100. I have no interest is selling these clamps but there are companies that sell similar clamps for laminating thicker panels.
The clamping mechanism is made from a piece of ½” x 1 ¼” flat bar. I drilled two ¼” holes through the narrow edge to accept the linkage plate. The clamping portion is a 6” section of 7/16” Ready-rod. Because I use so many clamps at one time I made speed handles out of a 7/16" nut and small section of ¼” round stock. The handles are nice as I tighten the clamps without taking my hand of the handle.
The “dumb” end is just a 3" piece of the same flat stock.
The problem with these is that they turn a light weight easy to handle panel into a heavy cumbersome pain in the arse…(lol)…in an hour , I can tape stitch enough panels for half a dozen boards , stack 'em out the way , and leave the work-bench free for other things . I’m not trying to be negative , but less tools to deal with ( and store somewhere) is a nice efficiency dividend.
Kayu, can you post a picture of one of your glue-ups. You are right that I can’t use my bench until the next day. I currently do the next boards panels as soon as I move to the shaping stand. Do you just tape both sides? I would love to know a better way.
I don’t have any relevant pictures to post…have a google , or you may find a demo on youtube ? . We also do a lot of solid timber furniture panels as well here…machine for that job is a rotary " Taylor" panel glueing machine - a brilliant design that’s been around since 1911 , and still works from the original factory in Poughkeepsie NY . Ive often wondered why the blank companies dont use these for their glue-ups…before we bought the Taylor (over 20years ago), we use sash clamps on a benchtop , and had heavy panels stacked all over the place…http://www.jamesltaylor.com/home
Thank-you. I originally thought about drilling a hole at each end of my bench and then building just the top half of what “unclegrumpy” posted above. I didn’t like the idea of potentially clamping onto hardened glue on my bench. I use dedicated rocker ladder tables for each board that just sit on this same bench so if there is a better way I would be very interested. I currently do my taping and glue-ups right on the clamps but it isn’t anywhere near as fast as what you are doing.
