Hi folks,
Can you please tell me how you go about clamping parts that are compound mitered?
I recently made a couple of doll cradles (one for my daughter and one for a niece). Compound miters, joined with dovetails. I tried to clamp them together with wedge-shaped cauls, only to find that increasing the clamping pressure just causes the caul to slide down the work. Web-type strap clamps slide around as well.
Anyone have a good method?
Thanks in advance, Nate
You could try making the wedge-shaped cauls with a hook on one end, and shallows dados, the width of the web strap, on the outside of the caul. This will keep both the cauls and the web strap in place.
These kind of picture frame clamps can handle it I think, you can see what they do, pretty much available commonly:
Forget the sissy clamping. Go with the framing nailer. Bam!, Bam! and you're done.
The link did not work on my system. Anyone else having a problem with it?
Bob
A good dovetail shouldn't need clamping! Tom Work at your leisure!
Okay, then look at these, second two (2 & 3) on the list:
Two ways:
Cling film (saran wrap). Not really kitchen cling film, but the thickier, stretchier stuf fyou can get on a 6" wide roll for wrapping awkward parcels.
Don't clamp it. Use a splined mitre and a glue with a high initial tack. You might use some light clamping to stop it falling apart, but the real location is coming from the spline, not the friction of the clamping force.
And you usually need the trained octopus to help put it together, because I don't have enough arms on my own.
You can hot melt a sacrificial block on them and use Ulmia clamps.
You can hot melt fancier pieces on and use Chestnut Clam Clamps.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net
Make some cauls that match the compound angle, yet leave a 90 deg angle to clamp. secure the caul with double stick tape or hot glue, do NOT over tighten. A properly cut dovetail should not require much clamping pressure. I clamp mainly to insure a square outcome.
Dave
I guess I better go get a framing nailer. ;-P
Yep, they went together pretty well ... I pounded them together with a rubber mallet, and there's just a hair width gap on the joints at the baseline. I think the gap should be pretty much invisible after finishing. But I think if I'd been able to clamp it it would have come together tighter. I'm still learning as I'm going.
I think you're right. I was missing the hooks on the end of the cauls. I'll try your way next go around.
Cheers, Nate
rubber bands?
Recalls for me a Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks as the 2000 Year Old Man routine:
Reiner: "How do you keep so healthy at your age?"
Brooks:" Fruits. There is a fruit for every disease. Name a disease and I'll tell you the fruit."
Reiner:"TB?"
Brooks: "Blueberries. They go and find the bacteria, they stain it and kill it."
Reiner:"Arterial sclerosis?"
Brooks:"Bananas. Or, a mushy pear."
Reiner, "Diarrhea?"
Brooks:" Peaches."
Reiner:"Any kind of peaches?"
Brooks:"No. Not Alberta. Cling. Cling peaches."
No. Rubber bands have their own ideas about how long they ought to be / how much force to apply. This stuff can be wrapped and stretched to fit, so that you get the right tension just where you need it.
Another thing I find useful in the workshop is Velcro. I have a few huge reels of 2" Velcro, and a bit of this sewn into double-ended strap. Take a few feet, then sew the ends together of opposing flavours, with the active side opposite to each other. You can use these as parcel tiedown straps for all sorts of jobs. A while back I cycled across town with 8 yards of heavy fabric in a bundle on the back of my bike, all held in place by a couple of these straps.
Ah, I wish I'd thought of that. Another good use for hot glue. Thanks to you and DanG for providing the same idea there.
Cheers, Nate
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