Clamping long pieces of wood

[Ksu93dlv]

I'm building an activity table for my son approximately 36"x60" using #20 biscuits for the joints on the four table legs. Joining the short sides was easy because I have a couple 40" bar clamps. How can I do the long sides though? I don't have any bar clamps longer than 40". I was thinking of assembling the sides and then pushing them up against a wall with something heavy against them. Any suggestions?

[nuk]

Figure out some way to hook the bar clamps together and hook over both ends where you need clamping. Not too difficult w/ regular pipe clamps, dunno about others.

HTH,

nuk

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

#1 Pony clamps. 3/4" pipe sections can be screwed together, and disassembled for use as shorter clamps.

#2 Band or web clamps. No band clamps? Those ratchet straps used for securing a load to a vehicle work great. Hook the two ends together and use scrap wood cauls to spread the load.

#3 Use a smaller bar clamp or C clamp to join two of the 40 inchers together. Like this:

{-------------}{------------} {--}

Only picture the jaws interlocked at the center, with the C clamp acting like a hook.

Barry

[Charlie Self]

ksu asks:

Buy 2 sets of 3/4" pipe clamp assemblies and 2 6' threaded pieces of 3/4" pipe clamp. Assemble, use, store carefully because you'll need them again--and you can buy 1', 2', 3', 4', and on pieces of pipe to reduce or add to the 6' lengths you now have. And no, 5' lengths won't quite give you enough for your

5' project.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Roy Smith]

In a pinch, I've banged together a frame from 2x4's that's longer than the thing I needed to clamp and turned some of my one-handed clamps around into the spreader configuration:

+-----------------------Frame--------------------------+ | | |===========Workpiece==================|---Spreader---|| | | || +------------------------------------------------------+

It's ugly, not particularly powerful, and a bit awkward. On the other hand, you can probably do it with stuff you've already got laying around. It costs nothing to build because you can reuse the 2x4's when you're done. If you're really cheap like me, you can even reuse the screws :-)

Lee Valley's panel clamps

a somewhat classier version of this idea, but require that you apply a crowbar to your wallet.

[Dave Balderstone]

Drill holes at each end of a piece of 2x4 large enough for the head of a clamp to fit. Presto! Clamp extender.

djb

[George M. Kazaka]

[George E. Cawthon]

Got an old inner tube? A spiral cut 1" wide will yield a very long rubber strap for wrapping around pieces to clamp; works best with smaller very odd shaped pieces.

And don't forget the ever popular long board (2x4, 1x4, etc.) with flat pieces (screwed, glued, or nailed) at each end and a wedge driven between the flat piece and the working piece to tighten it.

[mike]

All of the previous posts were good, if you have pinch dogs they will pull up as tight as any clamp. They leave small holes , only hammer into underside or excess length of glue up.Do a google search for pinch dogs if you do not know what they look like.

mike

[Roy Smith]

Or take a look at