The headboard Job

[Leon]

I have been commissioned to build a headboard. It is being constructed with mahogany and is being stained with General Finishes Georgian Cherry. The basic design will be Federal.

The main panel between the posts has to be wider than any of my clamps capicity. I could have screwed some of my old pipe clamps together but I still did not have enough. I needed to clamp in 4 locations a distance almost 74", so not even my 6' clamps would work.

Any way I made my 40"+ clamps work.

Then center piece on top was simply resting on top only being held in place by the opposing forces of the clamps.

[Lee Michaels]

The problem here is very obvious Leon. YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH CLAMPS!!

Time to break down and buy some of those new Festool Ten Footers!! LOL

Seriously though, that was a good solution utilizing what you had laying around. ;)

[krw]

Bessey makes a widget that splices two parallel clamps end-to-end. It might work for yours, if they don't have a similar widget.

[Sonny]

Nice, as is the clamping solution.

I like your work table, also. I have one similar to it.

Sonny

[Leon]

I knowwwwwwww. LOL, The problem is that 8 footers are damn expensive and I needed 4 and you would never have enough 8 footers that would mostly collect dust. ;~( I am working on an idea using a couple of

2x4' with a stop on each end on opposite sides. One side stop would grab the wood and the other end opposite side stop would allow a short clamp to grip. Two of those and one clamp would work.

Thank you. the only problem is that the panel wanted to bow, hence the short clamps on each corner

[Leon]

I have a couple of the Bessy unions, I needed two more and more Bessey clamps. My preference in clamps is the Orange Cabinet Masters.

[Leon]

Thank you!

Takes the fear of being cut, during clamping, out of the mix. LOL. It was a nice flat surface.. The Sawstop glue table works as well as the old Jet glue up table. :~)

[WW]

The problem here is very obvious Leon. YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH CLAMPS!!

Time to break down and buy some of those new Festool Ten Footers!! LOL

Seriously though, that was a good solution utilizing what you had laying around. ;)

Very good idea .. I like. WW

[Larry Blanchard]

I don't use my pipe clamps a lot, but I've got a 3' pipe and a 5' pipe for each one. That way I can go to 8' without having a lot of extra pipe when I don't need it. I've only needed the whole length a couple of times, but it was nice not having to rush out to buy the pipe :-)

[Greg Guarino]

I've done the same thing. And the price of the "clamp unions" is very reasonable. :)

[Scott Lurndal]

I'd probably have attached a couple of 2x4's of the appropriate length to an old sheet of plywood[*] and used wedges between the 2x4 and a caul to clamp a wide setup like that.

[*] Or even OSB would work.

[Swingman]

Don't we all:

[Leon]

Assuming plywood or SOB on the bottom and the 2x4' on the top of those plys, the wedges would have to be full length also. I wold need to be able to apply force at 8 joints in theis particular case. The full length wedges would work but the 2x4's wold have to be parallel to one another and the stock being clamped.

I am thinking more like this and this would cover a variety of lengths with out further modifications.

[Greg Guarino]

... zero?

I used a hollow-core door with a piece of mdf on top as a work surface. I screwed down a long aluminum straight edge and a strip of 1/2" ply to make a square corner. Then I screwed down four small blocks of 1x2 scrap at a slight angle to the work piece, leaving about a 1/4" gap. The blocks are placed adjacent to the four rails that I glued in, by the way; the rest of the rails float. Four shims provide the clamping pressure.

I've glued up the first two "ladders" (of four) that form the sides of my shelf units. It seems to be working fine. One of the reasons I did it this way was that - at least in the past - I have had some challenges getting stuff square. If I had to do any persuading (which would be difficult with this geometry and all of the dowels), I'd know right away and have a ready reference. I'm happy to report that the pieces went together square without any problem, perhaps because I took more care to set things up in the beginning.

I see no inherent problem with scaling up this system (which I certainly did not invent), but you would need a very large flat surface (that you don't mind driving screws into) for Leon's headboard

[WW]

Nice. Thanks for the photos. WW

... zero?

I used a hollow-core door with a piece of mdf on top as a work surface. I screwed down a long aluminum straight edge and a strip of 1/2" ply to make a square corner. Then I screwed down four small blocks of 1x2 scrap at a slight angle to the work piece, leaving about a 1/4" gap. The blocks are placed adjacent to the four rails that I glued in, by the way; the rest of the rails float. Four shims provide the clamping pressure.

I've glued up the first two "ladders" (of four) that form the sides of my shelf units. It seems to be working fine. One of the reasons I did it this way was that - at least in the past - I have had some challenges getting stuff square. If I had to do any persuading (which would be difficult with this geometry and all of the dowels), I'd know right away and have a ready reference. I'm happy to report that the pieces went together square without any problem, perhaps because I took more care to set things up in the beginning.

I see no inherent problem with scaling up this system (which I certainly did not invent), but you would need a very large flat surface (that you don't mind driving screws into) for Leon's headboard

[whit3rd]

The problem with C-shape clamps (including the adjustable-length ones) is that the rib has to be stiff along its length. The wood handscrew clamps, though, have one screw in tension and one in compression with no backbone required. You can make a version of that geometry with a 2x4 in compression and threaded rod (or a steel cable) in tension, that doesn't rely on the stiff backbone.

Even at 4', your (Bessy?) clamps are bowing a bit.

[Leon]

The besseys and the Cabinet Masters are bowing more than usual because they are being used at their extreme tips of their clamping surfaces. If the bars were laying flat on the work and the clamping pressure was at the bottom of the throats the bow would not be as exaggerated.

The general fix to prevent the clamps from bowing the work is to simply put clamps on both sides.