For years I would use clamps to along the length of the frame or door stiles to pull the rails in and flush with the ends of the stiles. The problem would be if the rails were in too far to begin with. I would have to tap the rails back out to the ends of the stiles flush with the clamp face,
Below Is my solution that requires no tapping and it pulls every thing up snug and flush, After tightening the clamps pulling the sides of the stiles up to the ends of the rails I remove every thing else, all other clamps.
This was just showing the "extra and temporary" clamps used to insure that the outer edges of the rails were on the same plane as the ends of the rails.
During the actual glue up two more clamps sat under all of this on each end directly under the rails. Once the rails were in their correct positions the bottom clamps were tightened and then all of the clamps in the picture were removed. Only the bottom clamps remained during dry time.
I'm always eager to learn from (someone else's) experience, but your photo puzzled me. My first question was the same as woodchuckers; you seemed to have everything clamped *except* the joints themselves!
I think I get that this setup is for getting the pieces aligned first. But now I'm wondering what mechanical connection you use between the rails and stiles. I know you're a Domino user; is that what's in there? And if so, (asking my usual ignorant question here) doesn't the loose tenon set the alignment? Or is there some slop?
Yes. this picture is only showing the method for aligning the pieces.
I only used the picture showing the initial trial to see how well the rails would pull into position.
During the actual glue up I ran a clamp under each rail to clamp the stiles to the rails. These clamps set on the work surface. Then I placed the "glued, Dominoed, and partially assembled but not squeezed together frame" on top of those clamps.
Next I clamped the rails to the longer outer piece of oak that extended past the stile ends. Then clamped that piece of oak up snug to the bottom of the stiles.
Once "snug" I tightened the bottom clamps that actually pulled the joint together and removed all of the clamps used only for alignment that were on top.
In the picture I thought that the fewer clamps the less distracting it might be, apparently not. LOL
The rails and stiles on 6 of the 8 frames were joined by a combination of lap joints and a Domino.
The front 2 face frames had no lap joints so they were held by the butt joint along with a Domino in each joint.
The Domino joiner/mortiser will make an exact fit and two over size width mortises to accept the Dominoes. I never use an exact fit mortise for the Dominoes for both sides of the joint. I typically cut an exact fit mortise in the ends of the rails and a wider mortise on the side ends of the stiles. This allows a bit of wiggle room for tweaking the fit in the event that you are not spot on with both mating mortises.
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