Gluing up a raised panel conglomeration...

[Stuart Welsh]

I'm inching toward the glue up phase of a multi panel arrangement for my refrigerator. As the SketchUp drawing shows there are many rails, stiles and raised panels to each component. Those components are Freezer Door panel, Fridge Door panel and two Side panels. The fridge door panel alone has 3 main stiles (the two in the middle are actually one), 5 minor stiles, 12 rails and 20 raised panels. I'm planning on using Titebond III for the glue but wondering if I might use children's school paste instead to allow the open time I fear I'll need! (Just kidding on the paste). To emphasize the size of this glue up... the Fridge panel is 29 1/4 x 79 1/2, the Freezer panel 19 1/4 x 79 1/2, and the sides are 26 (and change) x 86 1/2. Any suggestions on how I glue these monsters up will be much appreciated.

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[Mike Cutler]

Lay it all out before hand and, mark it for your preferred alignment.
Make sure all of the stuff you need is right there at hand. Nitrile gloves, brushes, applicators, wet rags, warm water, etc.
Pre tape joints to minimize squeezout.
Have all of your clamps layed out and pre opened to the correct distance.
Make sure you have your tape measure at the ready to measure your opposite corners for square.
Are you using space balls for the panels? Make sure they're in place before you start. They stick to gluey fingers really well.:o

Instead of Titebond III, consider using Titebond Extend. You have a 25 minute open time with Extend.

[Jerry Miner]

Glue up in stages. Do a dry run, figuring out the assembly order. Time it. Check your progress after, say, 15 min. Plan on gluing that portion and dry-fitting the rest. Afterwards, do another section. Then a third if you need it. Gluing in stages takes the panic out.

[Steve Kinnaird]

I agree with using Titebond Extended.
Titebond III only gives you 8 minutes.
Rushing is NEVER the answer.

[Stuart Welsh]

Thanks all, I'm already feeling better about this. Looking forward to additional excellent input.

[Peter Quinn]

I'd positively locate everything with dowels, or dominos, or something (even if you don't glue these in you don't want to look across the panel and have your horizontal lines look like waves on the ocean), and I'd glue it up with tite bond II, less squeeze out and running because its thicker. I'd absolutely glue it up in stages, this is not a monolithic glue up scenario, unless using a plastic resin or slow set epoxy, and those are a bear to clean up. All the blue tape in the world wont make up for good glue technique. You need the right amount of glue, to stay back from the leading edge of the cope and stick (I dry fit the whole assembly and make slight pencil marks as references so I can glue like a demon and not guess where the glue belongs) , .practice on test pieces as necessary, use a glue bottle with a small opening to encourage not over gluing. If you have a lot of clean up you are doing it wrong. I'd start from the middle and work my way out. I've done a few large doors with a number of panels, I always glue up the internal architecture in stages, it helps to dry fit the top/bottom rails and stiles when clamping to keep things aligned and square. Just glue up the little piece you need, throw the outer frame around it and clamp the whole thing, leaving the necessary joints dry. This is an easy door to clean up because it only has one A face.

Don't forget to sand everything you can, panels, sticking, all before glue up. I like to use minimal water for clean up, usually I keep a just moist rag, a big bucket of very clean water, and an acid brush with the bristles cut to about half way as a scrubber. An untrimmed brush brings too much water to the joint, dilutes the glue and makes a mess. I'll scoop out any glue at the intersections with the trimmed brush, wipe this on a paper towel, rinse well, then scrub out the joint with just a bit of fresh water, rinse, repeat, then dry it all out with the clean rag. I change the water a lot as I glue up if its a big job. If you are clear coating its less of an issue, but glue sizing the corners on a stain grade panel is a painful mistake to make, spreading watered down glue around is a bad plan. I used to work with a guy that would bathe everything in water with a huge shop towel, got all the glue out, watered down the glue in all the copes, edges of the copes would start to curl up from all the water he introduced in the clean up process....grain raised all the sticking we had worked so hard to pre-sand. Big mess, don't do it. Less is truly more...less glue, less water, less clean up, less work, better end results.

Its not about rushing, its about organization, planning, swift concise movements. You don't have to clamp up the sub assemblies for much more than 1/2 hour with type II, so you can work the right, clamp, work the left, clamp, go back to the right...etc. And remember to breath! IN and out! Its a scary thing slathering glue on the wood you have worked so long to machine....its one of the hardest things to conquer the nerves associated with glue ups, success favors the prepared!

[Stuart Welsh]

Thanks Peter, a couple questions...


I'd positively locate everything with dowels, or dominos, or something (even if you don't glue these in you don't want to look across the panel and have your horizontal lines look like waves on the ocean),

Being new to the hobby I'm not sure I've heard of this technique. I do have a Domino, are you inferring that I Domino the rails into the stiles? I guess I'd pre drill the Domino holes into both parts before making the grooves and tenons?


I always glue up the internal architecture in stages, it helps to dry fit the top/bottom rails and stiles when clamping to keep things aligned and square. Just glue up the little piece you need, throw the outer frame around it and clamp the whole thing, leaving the necessary joints dry.

Since I will likely modify a table for the glue up surface is there any merit in creating an accurately constructed form to assemble this in? Thinking out loud here… perhaps 3/4" material attached to the table top on 3 sides in the exact outer dimensions of which ever particular panel I'm assembling. Build from one edge out, stopping the glue portion at appropriate times, dry fitting the rest and then using clamps such as the Festool or similar to hold the assembly into proper alignment?

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If you are clear coating its less of an issue, but glue sizing the corners on a stain grade panel is a painful mistake to make,

I'm aware of some woodworkers staining prior to assembly. Thoughts?

[George Bokros]

I'm aware of some woodworkers staining prior to assembly. Thoughts?

I stain raised panels and apply at least one top coat before assembly. That way when the panel moves there will not be any unstained areas showing. Then I assemble and stain the rails and stiles and and apply the top coat to the complete assembly.

[Peter Quinn]

On the first part, yes dominos would be great if accurately placed it helps to have something to keep the rails located as you glue up the frame. Gluing up a complicated frame following pencil marks is the grease pole to frustration and in accuracy. You might be fine without such joinery if you make careful guage blocks as spacers. Depending on the molding profile you may be able to domino after shaping as well if that works better for you, but before wouldn't be bad either. You will need to trim the dominos length by the depth of the copes tongue.

on number two, not sure a 4 sided frame helps much, but having two legs of a rectangle with a perfect right angle to clamp against might not be a bad idea. I have a jig like that for pocket screwed face frames and I find it very useful.

im with George, prefinished panels are a good idea, I've never prefinished a whole panel or door as they typically need to be sanded level post assembly, so prefinished rails and stiles can actually be harder to deal with. And you want a good glue surface for the cope/sticking glue up, don't want to seal that with a stain. Prefinishing the panels will keep them from getting glued in at the corners too.

[Stuart Welsh]

On the first part, yes dominos would be great if accurately placed it helps to have something to keep the rails located as you glue up the frame…prefinished rails and stiles can actually be harder to deal with.

Devils Advocate: I might be missing something but if I use Dominos for alignment, sand level when the stiles and rails are dry fit it seems I could get away with staining rails and stiles before glue up. Of course this would be predicated on the fact I don't get stain on the glue surfaces.

[Jerry Miner]

Devils Advocate: I might be missing something but if I use Dominos for alignment, sand level when the stiles and rails are dry fit it seems I could get away with staining rails and stiles before glue up. Of course this would be predicated on the fact I don't get stain on the glue surfaces.

It's your project. You could certainly try it. Might be one of those things that sounds great in theory but doesn't work so well in practice. For me, pre-finished panels, yes. Stiles and rails--- finish after glue-up.

[Alan Bienlein]

I have always sanded and pre stained my panels and the stick profile. I don't worry about stain on the glue surface between the cope and stick and have never had a failure. After assembly I then sand the surface and stain it.

[Martin Wasner]

Pocket screw everything together. Do a dry fit with no panels, no screws, and no glue so you can mark and index everything. I'd adjust your cope head so everything is just a freckle loose. It'll help make sure the screws pull up tight. Then you can assemble joint by joint. Another trick I use is I cut the pocket screw slits before I cope, but that's because my coper removed a sixteenth of an inch on each cope. That allows the screw to bite a bit more.

I wouldn't pre finish anything, but that's just me.