Clamping problem

[Ron Hitchcock]

I'm attaching a curved fluted piece to a raise panel with pocket screws. Problem - how do I keep it tight together while screwing? I would appreciate your help. Thanks
Ron

[Mike Heidrick]

Can you cut a mating curve with a straight edge on the other side and clamp against the straight edge?

[Kevin Jenness]

If your fluted piece allows, temporarily fasten a clamping ear to its outside edge with a flat parallel to the edge of the raised panel and clamp from that flat across the raised panel. Hot melt glue, paper joint, two layers of blue tape with ca glue between are some possibilities for temporary fastening. Alternatively, screw blocks to the end grain of the raised panel stile and the fluted piece and clamp them together.

How will the pocket screws be hidden?

Nice carving on the bookmatched walnut. Is that cnc machined?

[Ted Derryberry]

1st suggestion, CA glue.

2nd suggestion, cut a square with an inside radius that will fit over the curved piece with the opposite corner cut off so you can clamp it to the curved piece. Then clamp against the flat side of the square to the opposite side of the panel. Make two of them, one for each end, and install the screws from the outside in and you shouldn't need one in the middle. If you have curved pieces on both ends you'll need four of them to clamp the second curve. I hope that makes sense.

[Jacques Gagnon]

Ron,

I am not sure if you just want to use screws or if you want to use glue to join the two sections. If you go for glue, Ted's suggestion will work; if you want more time to work, some form of spline (hand-made; domino, biscuit) with good old-fashioned glue will give extra breathing room. If using only screws, I would still go with a spline but temporarily fasten a block on the back surface (judging from the pictures this looks like an angle approximating 135 degrees) which will hold everything together while you insert the pocket screws. Two flat surfaces should be easier to work than curves (at least for me :D).

[Greg Hines, MD]

You could use a pinch dog top and bottom if you do not care about the marks they will leave. Otherwise, I would use super glue to hold them in alignment and then screw them together, or build a cradle to hold your fluted piece in registration with the flat panel.

Doc

[Lee Schierer]

Why would you have put the pocket holes on the face that will show? I would have put them on the back side per the second photo.

[Ron Hitchcock]

Thank you all for the tips. The pockets will be covered with another molding, on either side of the panel. I'm getting good use out of my CNC. Must have a couple hundred hours of carving so far. Take a look at the Resolute Desk, my son and I are making our Roman version. Thanks again.

[Jim Becker]

A temporary jig is your friend. Cut some pieces to the angle that the two workpiece intersect and with enough of them ganged, you should be able to clamp things together with quick clamps (soft jaws to not damage the machining on the workpieces.

[Dan Hahr]

If the edges are supposed to be flush at the corners, I'd use either packing or masking tape, applied with as much stretch as you can with the mating pieces laid flat and as close together as possible. When gluing, the pieces will be pulled back together and the tape will keep the seam tight. Practice first with tape running perpendicular to the joint so that you can see it closing up.
Dan

[Ron Hitchcock]

Attached is a picture of the end result. I first tried CA, glueing a small piece of wood to a jig, totally unrelated. Didn't do a good job of it, good thing I could plane it flush. So, you'll see in the picture there is considerable time and effort preparing the pieces beforehand - CA is not a good idea in this instance. What we did was trying to hold the two pieces flush and screwing them together, then, remove screws and sand holes flush. Then apply wood glue and screw. Well it wasn't flush on the outside, but it was on the inside of the door. So, we're happy. I'll try the tape idea on the next set of drawers.
Thank again.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Ron, that's very impressive. Would you care to offer tips on carving ? That looks like many hours of work.

[Jim Becker]

Ron, that's very impressive. Would you care to offer tips on carving ? That looks like many hours of work.

He mentioned that the carving is done with his CNC machine. So the task is "Draw", "Toolpath" (instructions to the machine how to move and cut) and then send the code to the machine to turn the picture into a 3D rendition in wood. :)

[Yonak Hawkins]

He mentioned that the carving is done with his CNC machine.

Thanks, Jim. I missed it. I wonder if there's a lot of sanding required after the machining gets done.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks, Jim. I missed it. I wonder if there's a lot of sanding required after the machining gets done.

While I'm anxiously awaiting my own CNC to arrive in about 6-8 weeks and can't speak from experience, with proper choice of the tooling (cutters) and tool pass overlap in the finishing cut process, the surface can be "darn smooth" upon completion of the carving. The specific material certainly can have an impact on it, but I believe there's a lot less hand-sanding required than might be expected if the job is properly setup and programmed. The more I learn about this, the more my mind says, "wow!".

[Grant Wilkinson]

For gluing weird profiles, I use Titebond Molding glue, but "clamp" the pieces with a couple of dots of CA. The CA holds the joint tight until the Titebond sets up.

[Matt Lau]

FWIW after the fact, I find brown binding tape to be extremely versatile for clamping odd stuff together for glueup and screwing.
I first heard about it from Mario Proulx, and found it works better than many fancy jigs for stuff like jointing soundboards, gluing binding, and when I veneered a speakerbox in wenge.

However, Jim's idea of a temporary jig is ideal.

[Ron Hitchcock]

While I'm anxiously awaiting my own CNC to arrive in about 6-8 weeks and can't speak from experience, with proper choice of the tooling (cutters) and tool pass overlap in the finishing cut process, the surface can be "darn smooth" upon completion of the carving. The specific material certainly can have an impact on it, but I believe there's a lot less hand-sanding required than might be expected if the job is properly setup and programmed. The more I learn about this, the more my mind says, "wow!".

Jim, the key to minimal sanding is a very small overlap. For the door panels, I used a 1/16" bullnose bit with a 10% overlap. The panel took between 4 to 6 hours, don't recall exactly. The fluted piece was 4 x 8/4 pieces glued together with paper in between and a jig on either end. Turned by a friend and fluted on the lathe. I hope to have this section done by the end of the month, then the other side and the Roman eagle centre piece. I use VCarve Pro V9 for my CNC from Rockler.

[Yonak Hawkins]

This is one heck of a project, Ron. On par, I would say, with some of the high European furniture. Congratulations on tackling such a demanding endeavor. I would love to see it in person if it should ever end up in a museum.

[Jim Becker]

Jim, the key to minimal sanding is a very small overlap. For the door panels, I used a 1/16" bullnose bit with a 10% overlap. The panel took between 4 to 6 hours, don't recall exactly. The fluted piece was 4 x 8/4 pieces glued together with paper in between and a jig on either end. Turned by a friend and fluted on the lathe. I hope to have this section done by the end of the month, then the other side and the Roman eagle centre piece. I use VCarve Pro V9 for my CNC from Rockler.

Yup...that's the impression I've gotten from the ten-gazzilion videos, training and otherwise, that I've been watching in preparation for my head-first jump into CNC work. LOL The small overlap does cause long job times, but the end result can be stellar!