Clamping Procedure

[David Delo]

I'm making 17 white ash cabinet doors that vary in height but have width between 17.5" & 21". Most of my raw stock is between 5" to 6" material. Most glue ups will take 4 or 5 pieces.

Question is: what's the correct procedure in the glue up procedure? Do I just glue up 4 or 5 pieces all at one time or do you glue up piece 1 & 2 and connect it to glue up pieces 3 & 4 and then glue up the two half's?

I have enough clamps to do 2 half's at a time, but want to know if thickness alignment become a concern when try to piece together 4 or 5 pieces at a time. Trying to speed up the glue up procedure without buying a zillion clamps.

I don't have a thickness planer wide enough to handle that width, so I plan on using my 18/36 drum sander to handle that width.

Any help with procedure would be appreciated. Thanks,

[Thomas love]

David ,
Seeing that you have a sander IMO you should be able to glue all at the same time. Pay attention to your edges being jointed as square as possible. If your glue up experience is limited, which I suspect ... I like your idea of breaking down the process until you feel comfortable.
tom.

[Steve Kohn]

Do a search on using cauls for clamping. You can either buy or make your own. Saves a lot of clamps and gives you a flatter door.

[David Delo]

Thanks for the info. Good food for thought.

[Lee Schierer]

I would clamp everything at once and work quickly to align the various pieces to each other. I usually start at one side and work toward the other aligning each strip to the one next to it in the area of the clamp and then move on to the next clamp, repeating the alignment. Once all the clamps are snug, I come back and tighten them all firmly. You'll also need to insure that in addition to being even with each other the overall piece remains flat.

[Paul Saffold]

Mike Henderson posted a good tutorial on making cauls http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?referrerid=5960&t=126343