Advice on Clamping Quarter Round to Board

[Clay Anderson]

Hello everybody,

I've loved the art of woodworking since I was young, but have only recently been able to explore this passion. I look forward to learning from the community. I'm currently building some very small speaker enclosures out of 1/4" MDF and ran into a dilemma; how to join them.

I decided the simplest way was to cut some 11/16 quarter round to length and use them as the much needed surface area for gluing. However, clamping the quarter round to the MDF for gluing presented another challenge. The "round" portion kept wanting to slide/lift when clamped (using some light duty EZ Clamps over my Bessey Bar Clamps).

Do you more experienced folks have a better way of doing this?

[lowell holmes]

I would glue rectangular wood strips to the mdf and then round the edges with a router table.

[Charles Wiggins]

What you are describing doing with the quarter round is known as a glue block - an extra piece of wood glued into a joint to increase the overall glue surface of the pieces being joined.
Does it have to be quarter round? Or could you use triangular pieces?

Assuming you are doing 90º joints, I would use a triangular glue bock on the inside and use a temporary clamp block with a v-groove cut out on the outside, giving you two parallel clamping surfaces.
349521

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Charles

[John Lankers]

You could glue the 4 side pieces together using CA glue and then glue your 1/4 rounds in with regular wood glue using spring clamps to hold them in place and add pressure or use a pin nailer instead of spring clamps.

[Clay Anderson]

Thanks for the replies folks! You've given me some fantastic ideas. I'm currently short on equipment; limited to hand saws, circular saw, several EZ squeeze clamps and some Bessey F clamps. But I believe I can manage with the advice given - thanks again!

[Bill Conerly]

Of you take John Lankers' advice, you now have an excuse to but a compressor and nail gun!

[Clay Anderson]

Of you take John Lankers' advice, you now have an excuse to but a compressor and nail gun!

Hahaha I'll have to tell my wife John Lanker and Bill Conerly said so!