Gluing up boards to make solid cabinet doors and table tops remains a necessary and time-consuming part of woodworking. And many woodworkers out there avoid glue-ups because of the machinery (or exhausting hand work) required to get a newly glued-up solid wood panel nice and flat. It takes a wide planer, wide sander, or unyielding enthusiasm for the joys of hand planing.
But here’s a little trick that’ll help out: clamp blocks that help keep the aligned and flat while the glue dries.
Make blocks out of solid 3/4″ material that resemble a 4″ long U shape. See below. Clamp up your panel with bar clamps or pipe clamps as you normally would. Then clamp U blocks so that they bridge over the joints, achieving two things:
In the end, you won’t need to do nearly as much planing and sanding to get the solid panel flat.
WOOD Magazine has free plans for the clamp blocks at this page if you need a visual:
http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-plans/clamping/easy-to-handle-clamp-blocks/
Use one block on the top and one on the bottom to align the boards perfectly
Clamp blocks force the boards to align perfectly to achieve a flat solid wood panel
Vice President of Operations – Woodworkers Source
We’re a family-owned lumber & woodworking supply retailer with 3 delightful stores in Arizona, and 35 friendly employees.
Mark oversees the company and creates tutorials on wood finishing and woodworking tips for hardwood lumber.
Woodworkers Source is a division of MacBeath Hardwood Co.
