Large panel glue-ups

[Tom Hammond]

A customer has asked me to take some S2S 5-quarter butternut and glue it into panels that will be approximately 3 ft x 6 ft. With some of the material he has available being short lengths, this will require end gluing some of the boards.

I'm a little worried since I've not done this kind of gluing before. He plans on using the panels for chip carving (deep relief carving) on them. My concern is gaps in the glue ups. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Joe Chritz]

You will want to finger joint the ends and make sure he knows that it will be visible if the carving goes over an end joint.

The width shouldn't be a big problem. I would definitely invest in some good cauls to keep the panel flat during the glue up and to allow more pieces at once.

A good glue roller would be helpful also.

Joe

[Jamie Buxton]

Geez, he's going to carve these big panels? That's a great deal of work, and he's cheaping out on buying full-length lumber?

[Steve Bracken]

Geez, he's going to carve these big panels? That's a great deal of work, and he's cheaping out on buying full-length lumber?

6' x 3'?

He might be putting them in a Shop Bot, or similar.

[scott vroom]

A customer has asked me to take some S2S 5-quarter butternut and glue it into panels that will be approximately 3 ft x 6 ft. With some of the material he has available being short lengths, this will require end gluing some of the boards.

I'm a little worried since I've not done this kind of gluing before. He plans on using the panels for chip carving (deep relief carving) on them. My concern is gaps in the glue ups. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Are you planning to edge joint the stock? If so, why would you be concerned about gaps? If you're talking about gaps in the glue itself then I imagine brushing on the glue evenly would take care of it.

I did a glue up recently where I had to use some shorts interspersed with long stock. I avoided placing the shorts on the outside edge of the glue up, and made sure that a full length board was adjacent to both sides of the shorts. On the shorts, I simply glued and butted the ends. I don't see a need for finger jointing particularly if you are able to sandwich the shorts between full length long stock.

I agree some good cauls would be helpful.