Panel Gluing Jig - By popular request

[Shiraz Balolia]

Hi everyone - since many people were intrigued and asked me for better pictures of my gluing jig, I am attaching pictures of the multi-tier jig I built about 15 years ago to glue together two book-matched pieces (or any pieces) of wood together for the guitar bodies, without allowing the center to bend/buckle when you tighten the clamps.

This was the second jig I made as the first one was for very thin pieces of wood for acoustic guitars. However, this one can be used for both.

I often use spacers near the jaws to take up excess space for narrower pieces. Bear in mind that the best glue-up would be when your seam is directly under the pipe. I use the wedges to keep the parts flat and prevent them from buckling up when tightening the clamps. Also, keep some wax paper underneath and between your wedges and the wood on top. Be sure that part of wax paper does not get caught in between the joint when clamping.

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Would also be excellent for use when building cabinets if you need wider panels. My jig can handle up to 28" long pieces, but you can make it shorter or longer. Hope this is helpful.

Link to video for those that missed it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiGJHXTK5U8&t=10s

[Brian Tymchak]

Thanks Shiraz! Really appreciate the photos.

[Lisa Starr]

Thank you for sharing. The video was enjoyable, but the panel clamping jig brilliant! I'll be making one of these for sure.

[Ronald Blue]

Thank you for sharing Shiraz. Nicely done!

[Todd Trebuna]

Thanks You so much. Ingenious and practical and the boxes are beautiful.

[richard poitras]

Shiraz, Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to post the pictures, as it really shows the mechanics on how the jig is made, pretty simplistic but easy is a good thing. For those that are interested the jig appears at about 24:00 on the video, but if you have the time its worth watching the whole video.

Happy Holidays Shiraz, to you and your family.

Richard

[jamil mehdi]

I like this jig and may build a variation of this. Are the shelves removable once the panel is clamped, or do they need to stay in the dadoes to keep the bottom from deflecting? If they're removable, that's even better. I could glue up the panels on the shelf right on the work bench, then slide them in as a drying rack.

[Shiraz Balolia]

I like this jig and may build a variation of this. Are the shelves removable once the panel is clamped, or do they need to stay in the dadoes to keep the bottom from deflecting? If they're removable, that's even better. I could glue up the panels on the shelf right on the work bench, then slide them in as a drying rack.

The shelves are totally independent and can be removed even with clamps tight on the panels. The "rack" is simply making use of air space.

[Will Blick]

Shiraz, your creativity, workmanship is just superb. You have even mastered the video aspect of demonstrating your work, a very well done video! Kudos. I sure hope you make a lot more videos, this was quite the treat for many of us who aspire to be at your level. Love seeing how u work with so many different machines, granted u have access to nearly every machine made, so my question is ideal for you. I own lots of green machines in my shop, but not all the ones you have!

We all know in ww, there is multiple ways to accomplish a given task. Everything from Neander to full automation. I was very intrigued how you were using a mill (and CNC mill) for traditional woodworking tasks, such as cutting recesses for hinges.

A CNC mill can be quite the beast for ww, as they are designed for cutting metals so more heft is required. But as you demonstrated in the video, a CNC mill is ideal for so many ww tasks, specially if the mill table end could hold long boards in vertical position so you can cut dovetails for drawers and apply other end work tasks. In addition, if a 4th axes was added, you could do most lathe functions as well as 3d carvings. While much of this can be done manually with a mill, the CNC component eliminates the tedious nature of the work for ww and therefore greatly eliminates mistakes.

IMO, this represents the ultimate ww CNC machine for the "fine art" woodworker. This is not the same as the commonplace cabinet maker who mostly cuts down large sheet on a flatbed CNC for carcass parts. The fine art ww is usually working with smaller pieces of hardwood.

I see flatbed CNC makers slowly adding 4th axis to their flatbed CNC's which would accomplish some of the tasks I mentioned above. But will the industry move towards a machine as I described? It seems all the bits n pieces already exist for such a machine, but not all assembled in a fine art ww CNC machine. Your insights would be greatly appreciated.