landslide Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 Title says it all. I'm ready to embark on this epic ride. Lumber (soft maple) has been acquired, though I came up a bit short after mapping the bench parts on what I got. So the gap stop is going to be made from SYP. Couldn't find any 12/4, so I'll have to get something to fil that void when I get there. But I am ready. The first step (next weekend) will be to mill and to glue up the pieces. To that end, I have a few questions which I have not been able to find adequate answers to in the forums or in the videos. 1. No discussion of glue. Marc doesn't talk much about what kind of glue he uses. Tite Bond, obviously. But which glue in particular. Or at least, which glue to avoid? I will obviously go with Tite Bond (I've used Tite Bond II for other projects). But i want to be sure. 2. Clamps. I have 6 Jet Parallel Clamps of 12" in width. Marc appears to have a bazillion clamps. He jokes in the videos that he overclamps, but he doesn't really say what the minimum is. Probably because it's hard to say for sure given the clamps each person has. So let me put it this way: Are 6 Jet 12" Parallel Clamps of 1000lbs strength each enough? 3. Some of the boards I got for the Bench Top are not 96" in length. They are more like... 91, 92". Is this no good? I ask because I know we're going to eventually chop them down to 87 and change. But if I'm running too high a risk of snipe... I need to know now. Thanks! etienne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamAronson Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 G'mornin Etienne! Though not finished I am about halfway along on my build and can answer some of your questions having just slabbed up the front and back top laminations. I had some TB left over so I mixed it and some TBII into the glue tray I used. So far, nothing has exploded. I bought a gallon of TBII specifically for this project as it seems to be the "go to glue" for well, everybody. Honestly, I asked around and couldn't find a reason not to use it. I used 8 or 9 Jet & Bessey parallel clamps on my lamination. I'm not 100% sure from experience but I dont think you can go wrong with 6. The shortest of the boards I had for my top was 90" but the rest were between 94" and 96". I used the same planer that you have and I did suffer some 2-3" of snipe on the end of each board and one to two inches at the front. I believe this would've been worse had I not placed some infeed and outfeed roller support. Someone else with a more definitive may feel stronger. I figured I'd share my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 tight bond should work fine, you can never have enough clamps so buy when ever possible i buy one every pay check you need lots of clamps because you never know when you are going to do a big job that needs lots of clamps or lots of small projects where you need 1 clamp for every iteam you make (example i just made 47 desk sets to sell and i needed 2 clamps for each one. i only have 20 clamps so i had to clamp and glue 20 one day and 20 the next day so a job that i could have done in one day took 2.5) the snipe you might have to play at geting your infeed and outfeed tables level to reduce snipe. you can also use a hand plane to level and smooth out the snipe when your done. but i think you will be fine after all you have 4-5 inchest of extra space if there is any snipe by the time you cut down it will be so small on the end of your board you wont even notice it or if you do just hit it with eather your sander/plane/cardscraper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landslide Posted June 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 hi Adam, thanks for all the information. I feel a little more relieved that you used a 90" board and things worked out ok. Two to three inches isn't that bad. And like you, I expect only one board to be around 92". However I do need to get some infeed and outfeed support. Always more things to worry about And maybe I should get another clamp or two just to be sure ... grrr. etienne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barron Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 You can use the "short" boards for the front slab - since you will cut it a a couple of inches shorter anyway to account for the end cap. Also, if you have any longer clamps around use those. I had short, long, and medium length clamps for my glue up. The 60" clamps made it hard to get around the shop while the glue was drying, but it worked. Pipe clamps in between the Jets would also work, and are less expensive if you are buying extra. Just use something to keep from marring the edges. Enjoy the build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landslide Posted June 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 Good point about using the shorter boards for the end cap. I don't have longer clamps. Is there any reason to get the longer clamps for *this* project? I suppose I could get the 24" clamps, but as far as I can tell I won't need more than 12" for this project. I forgot to mention that it's beginning to get humid here in Indiana. Any thoughts on how that can affect the glue up? etienne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cts1085 Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 Etienne, I am in Forida and we deal with humidity on a regular basis here - just let the clamps stay on longer (i.e. 24 hours or overnight) and you should be just fine. I did my glue-ups in smaller sections just to make sure i kept things aligned - dowels, biscuits, etc. really go a long way to help the glue-up process. Take your time and do dry runs on every step - it is always amazing to me what I can learn about my particular environment that is different from the videos but also interesting ways to accomplish the task. - sometimes a cheap PVC roller on a dowel can make all the difference! Take your time and have fun - I started with the groups but only have about 90% of the top completed - everyone works at their own pace. -Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landslide Posted June 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 Thanks for the info about humidity, Tomfoolery. 24 hours seems fine to me. I just bought a little biscuit joiner for the alignment. Not sure I plan to use that joiner for actual joining, but for alignment, it seems like the right tool. Your note about dry runs is something I didn't think about, but now will definitely do. In other walks of life, for other types of projects, I've done dry runs of things, and they always reveal something important that would otherwise be overlooked. Thanks! etienne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barron Posted June 25, 2012 Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 I used longer clamps to dry fit the base, but they were optional, not required. While optional for the Roubo, I have found them required for many other projects. I don't quite buy the "you can't have to many," but I always seem to need just one more. Plus, you can use a 60" clamp in place of a 12," but it's hard to use a 12" when in you need a 60." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 I used longer clamps to dry fit the base, but they were optional, not required. While optional for the Roubo, I have found them required for many other projects. I don't quite buy the "you can't have to many," but I always seem to need just one more. Plus, you can use a 60" clamp in place of a 12," but it's hard to use a 12" when in you need a 60." i have to disagree with the 60" theory i used a large clamp yesterday and set it on a shelf to be out of the way.........couple hours later walked into dark shop to get something and forgot about the clamp. you guessed it closed lined me. you can stretch a shorter clamp out to clamp a larger pieces as for long or short clamps this a trick i used when i ran out of long enough clamps If you need some extra long clamps for an oversized project and don't have any sufficiently long pipe clamps (or pipe couplers), one solution is home-made clamp extenders. These are simply pieces of wood with wooden blocks attached to each end. One end forms a clamping point and the other end fits over the edge of the work piece. I made a bunch of clamp extenders for a platform bed project and have used them for several other projects since. If I'm running low on long pipe clamps or just don't feel like taking the time to splice together shorter pipe clamps to make long clamps, these home-made clamp extenders are just the ticket. Can't beat the price either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barron Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 The clamp extenders look cool. As noted, long clamps can be in the way. Mine were at "waist" level when in use, and the risk to certain vital parts of my body was there. I made sure the lights were on, but I still had a few close calls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allencrane Posted June 30, 2012 Report Share Posted June 30, 2012 I would echo the duck and and say you can't have too many clamps. the slab tops are just the beginning. You will need them for larger sections such as the base and legs. I used mine for everything from holding the base square along the diagonals (as well as clamping the legs to the cross members) and even using the long clamps for squeezing the legs into the tight mortises for the top. I had 8 pipe clamps, mix of 3' and 4' long, and I wished the whole time I had more. I like the idea of getting a good clamp every month...I wonder if Woodcraft takes autodraft? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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