Tips and Tricks needed - Minimize glue sliding when Edge glueup Panels ??

[Marc Jeske]

So, the old problem of sliding and skating alignment when edge gluing to create a wider board..

I've done Advanced Search, and Googled, hoping for more ideas from Ya'll.


Need to make qty of 50 stain grade Pine shelves 16" x 96" x 3/4" each... using 3- "1x6" (S4S to 3/4") per shelf.

Yes, I am aware of factory made of the above from Big Box stores, want to use MY lumber.

Willing to make a dedicated glueup tabletop jigged for this if best ?

Regular Titebond 2.

I do have access to 26" wide belt, but rather not reduce panel thickness.

Would rather take more effort in alignment.


So, We know Biscuits, dowels, Domino, milled tongue/ groove etc edges, loose spline, keep clamps square, cauls,limiting end sliding, working on perfect flat table, making various purpose jigs, straightedge before walking away, etc.

I'll call those "Mechanical means".


Then, a bit different .. we have...Sprinkle sand, sprinkle Salt, (not gonna do that one), pin brads clip off head, stuff that increases friction to resist sliding.

Looking for more ideas that fit in the SECOND "friction" category, and any other tips.

Thank you, Marc

[Lee Schierer]

First off, those are long shelves, hopefully there will be supports along the length to prevent sagging. The best way to align you pieces during glue up it to use cauls above and below your wood to force the boards into alignment as they are clamped. Slipping is usually cause by excess glue. If you are getting large drips and running glue you are using too much glue. What you should see when you clamp the boards together is small beads of glue about 1/16"-1/8" in diameter spaced along the glue line.

[glenn bradley]

I find properly milling your material and using parallel clamps eliminated 99% of my slipping and sliding issues for panel glue-ups. If you are forced to join boards that are not flat and true, some method that allows you to force them into position will be required. Splines and such will provide the mechanical strength to do this as you observed. The material still has to be well jointed to get a quality fit.

If your material is well fitted before you apply your glue and you are using clamps that will not pull things out of square, your problems should be nearly eliminated. There is not really a "magic dust" in the form of sand or other friction adding element that will overcome an ill fit although it may slightly speed your assembly time.

I use a method on small parts and it may translate to longer thin surfaces, you'll have to try it and see. Layout the glue on the surfaces to be joined, rub the surfaces together till they start to grab and then separate them. Wait about 30 seconds and then re-join them and apply the clamps. On small pieces this seems to amplify the "grab" and reduces movement while applying clamping pressure without resulting to grit or clipped pins.

[Jim Becker]

I snug up the clamps close enough to give some resistance while using my hand to keep things aligned, get the clamp at the very end tighter to hold things in place while working down the line. It's also a "best practice" to start "longer" so minor slipping doesn't matter. Trip the panel to length after the glue cures. If you're trying to glue up a panel with pre-dimensioned boards at the final length, you're raising your risk. A little blue tape can also help with this.

[Prashun Patel]

I use f clamps on the ends to keep the boards vertically aligned. Partially tighten the joint, then snug down the F's on the ends firmly. They will inhibit further lateral skating as you fully tighten the edge together.

[Gary Radice]

The furniture maker Michael Fortune suggests sprinkling a few grains of ordinary table salt into your spread glue. Just a few grains here and there. Don't overdo it. Then clamp. The salt crystals provide a bit of physical resistance to sliding (like you might add sandpaper to a jig fence to prevent sliding), but then dissolve.

I've tried it a couple of times and it does help (but don't expect miracles).

[Ken Combs]

I use f clamps on the ends to keep the boards vertically aligned. Partially tighten the joint, then snug down the F's on the ends firmly. They will inhibit further lateral skating as you fully tighten the edge together.

I do a similar thing, but use vise grips, extended jaw with swivel ends. This assures vertical alignment as well. I have enough of these, left over from solid surface veneer counter top work, to use them every few inches or so of length also. Fast to install, adjust and move if needed.

[Vince Shriver]

50 8ft boards X's 2! I think I'd look into a t&G bit or glue joint bit (or magic molder cutter).

[Mike Cutler]

A couple, or a half dozen, or so shelves, and I'd fiddle around a bit. Fifty! I'm going for mechanical alignment. You could run them on a shaper, or router table, and be done milliing in an hour.
No matter which way you go, I think there will eventually be a little sanding.

[Andy Giddings]

+2 on the glue joint or other mechanical alignment, especially for this number of joints

[Matt Day]

Run them through a router table or shaper with a glue joint bit of some kind. Then you don’t have to fiddle with biscuits, dowels, dominoes, etc.

Glueing up that many panels will take time though, depending on how many clamps you have and how much room you have. Cauls would be great but you’ll need a number of them.

[Bradley Gray]

I bought a Plano glue press a few years ago. It has solved several problems:

The clamps are wall mounted so they align the boards edge to edge and also flat lengthwise.

The glue seams are horizontal so the glue doesn't run out as much (as long as I don't apply too much)

[Bill Adamsen]

You could "maybe" do three at a time with 48" clamps, but they would need some sort of mechanical keying (lots of ideas above) to get the right alignment. Since all are the same size a fixed station with wedges could provide the clamping pressure. If you don't have many large clamps that could be a reasonable way to get the job done. I have a suspicion you are going to be timing the setup and unclamping early. Let us know what the failure criteria are.

[Chris Parks]

I had to make over thirty table tops and I quickly worked out that if I let the glue go off a bit I would then use a block of wood and a hammer to align them or if not too bad my hands by hitting it fairly hard. I used no alignment biscuits, dowels etc and came out with close enough to aligned panels with only occasional misalignment. I glued the edges to be joined using an amount that minimised squeeze out and after a while you will get pretty good at judging the amount needed. Excess glue means the joint will float on the glue, this is an important point. I also glued them straight off the table saw so the faces were not dead smooth and that may have helped as well.

[Bill Adamsen]

I had to make over thirty table tops and I quickly worked out that if I let the glue go off a bit I would then use a block of wood and a hammer to align them or if not too bad my hands by hitting it fairly hard.

Chris: Assuming you used some sort of clamp? What glue did you use? What was the wood? If clamped, how long before release (to "reuse" the clamps elsewhere)?