namluke Posted June 18, 2018 Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 Hi, Im looking to make a table top out of a few sheets of wood, 3 to 4 pieces of oak around 1 meter in length, each piece of wood is 20mm thick and around 145mm wide. What clamp would be best to use? Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted June 18, 2018 Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 A few sheets of wood?????? You need to be way more specific if you want answers that will help you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namluke Posted June 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 7 minutes ago, RichardA said: A few sheets of wood?????? You need to be way more specific if you want answers that will help you. 3 to 4 pieces of oak around 1 meter in length, each piece of wood is 20mm thick and around 145mm wide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted June 18, 2018 Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 I remember years ago when I had to re-sod my lawn. I went to a grass farm and told them I needed to buy some patties of grass. I thought those old boys were going to fall off the fence laughing. All is good! I would use either parallel clamps or pipe clamps 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namluke Posted June 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 Just ordered a pair of them, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick S Posted June 18, 2018 Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 You will need more than one clamp for a one meter length of would. As a rule of thumb, draw a 45 degree line on either side of the clamp across the face of the wood. Where it intersects with the other side you need another clamp. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 3 hours ago, Mick S said: You will need more than one clamp for a one meter length of would. As a rule of thumb, draw a 45 degree line on either side of the clamp across the face of the wood. Where it intersects with the other side you need another clamp. I’ve heard that before and had forgotten it. Thanks for the reminder. I had a note book but can’t find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pondhockey Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 4 hours ago, Mick S said: You will need more than one clamp for a one meter length of would. As a rule of thumb, draw a 45 degree line on either side of the clamp across the face of the wood. Where it intersects with the other side you need another clamp. Nice rule. So if I understand correctly, you (figuratively) break up the top into squares, with a clamp at each edge of a square? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gee-dub Posted June 19, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 11 hours ago, Pondhockey said: Nice rule. So if I understand correctly, you (figuratively) break up the top into squares, with a clamp at each edge of a square? Picture it like so . . . 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 So to figure out spacing we need to calculate the tan of the angle which is 45 degrees and multiply that by the fraction of the opposite leg W over the adjacent leg X. Where W is the width of the board and X is 1/2 the needed clamp spacing. So tan(45)=W/X shifting stuff around we have W/tan(45)=X. All you have to do is solve for X and then double for the spacing. tan(45)=1 forgive me some math humor 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 13 hours ago, K Cooper said: I’ve heard that before and had forgotten it. Thanks for the reminder. I had a note book but can’t find it. It's on your bench. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gee-dub Posted June 19, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 I think we should all go back to our first posts when we didn't know that a dog was a hole in a bench and a frog was part of a plane and see the types of question we all asked back then. @namluke We have a pretty good time around here and poke fun at each other with good intention as you have probably seen in the past. Pipe clamps can do a lot of work for a minimal investment. Longer glue joints (like your 1 meter) would use 4 or 5 clamps in my shop. Or some bowed cauls which I made for such things. If you Google 'bowclamp' you will get some results that show you the general idea of them. Early on I would just snap up any good quality parallel clamp if it was on sale for a dollar an inch or less. This netted me a grip of Bessey K-Body's but, I have Uniclamps, F-style clamps, pipe clamps and all sorts of others as well. You don't need all of these but, having the right clamp for the job can make your shop time more pleasant. I would recommend you 'buy them as you need them'. This avoids a collection of clamps you don't like or need but, does require a bit of patience. I hope your table top works out well for you. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted June 20, 2018 Report Share Posted June 20, 2018 How about one of these? https://greensboro.craigslist.org/tls/d/wood-vise-by-handy-mfg/6618764318.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted June 20, 2018 Report Share Posted June 20, 2018 Now that's a clamp you'd never have to many of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted June 20, 2018 Report Share Posted June 20, 2018 5 hours ago, gee-dub said: I think we should all go back to our first posts when we didn't know that a dog was a hole in a bench and a frog was part of a plane and see the types of question we all asked back then. @namluke We have a pretty good time around here and poke fun at each other with good intention as you have probably seen in the past. Pipe clamps can do a lot of work for a minimal investment. Longer glue joints (like your 1 meter) would use 4 or 5 clamps in my shop. Or some bowed cauls which I made for such things. If you Google 'bowclamp' you will get some results that show you the general idea of them. Early on I would just snap up any good quality parallel clamp if it was on sale for a dollar an inch or less. This netted me a grip of Bessey K-Body's but, I have Uniclamps, F-style clamps, pipe clamps and all sorts of others as well. You don't need all of these but, having the right clamp for the job can make your shop time more pleasant. I would recommend you 'buy them as you need them'. This avoids a collection of clamps you don't like or need but, does require a bit of patience. I hope your table top works out well for you. Well said! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyL Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 In addition to this general rule of clamp spacing, for panel glue-up, you should be alternating the clamps so that every other clamp is on the opposite side of the panel. Get them all in place and snugged up so they don't fall off while additional clamps are being added on both sides of the panel, and when all are in place then apply the significant clamping pressure by tightening them up, I like to alternate this final tightening sequence to keep the pressure on the panel as even as possible, so I first do the clamps on each end, followed by the middle, then the in between clamps, etc.. With pipe clamps especially, putting all of the clamps on one side of the panel can cause the panel to bow as you increase the clamping pressure. If you alternate the clamps, the pipe portion of the clamps will help prevent this bowing problem. I use paste wax on my pipe and bar clamps to prevent the glue from sticking to them, making the clamps easy to clean up after their use. Charley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.