clamping a single box joint

[Bill Gebhardt]

So how does one glue up a single box joint? A friend has asked me to memorialize
a pair of bricks salvaged from her high school that burned down back in the Forties.
Her vision was a pair of book ends. Given the weight of a brick I decided on a box
It is all cut and dry fitted, with pins slightly proud to be sanded off later.
But I am stuck on clamping both ways and keeping it square.
This is a SketchUp, not a photo just to give you an idea of what it looks like
But how can I clamp it?
Bill
483617

[John TenEyck]

I'd use a right angle block to keep the parts aligned properly.

John

[Jamie Buxton]

If the pins are proud, you can't just slap a clamp on there. It will hang up on the pins, and will not put any pressure on the other piece of wood. You have to put popsicle sticks or something between the pins so that the clamp force bears on the other piece of wood.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

You could put some plastic box tape on the brick for parting film and use it as a caul. My alma mater burned as well. That is a neat project.

[Jim Becker]

Clamping with right angle fixtures on the inside of the joint will keep things at 90º and doesn't require you to have the clamps touch the fingers that are proud. You could even use your brick for that if it was actually a 90º corner, but I wouldn't risk that. Use shop made or commercial right angle fixtures.

[Kevin Jenness]

If you cut the pins flush it will make clamping easier. Use cauls with some give like leather or soft pine combined with a glue resist layer like wax or plastic film.

If the box joints are fit well, they just need to be knocked together like a dovetail and held square until the glue catches. Unlike a dovetail they need to be forced home in two directions at once.

It's possible to fit the joint dry and add ca glue from outside but you would have to deal with the glue stain.

Bricks make pretty good bookends all on their own.

[Earl McLain]

If you’re making a pair…how about making a rectangle, the cut out opposing corners. Have to allow for he trimming. Would allow for box joint all the way around.
if not married to box joints, might be a good spot for pocket holes hidden by the brick.
earl

[Bill Gebhardt]

Gentlemen, thank you for your interest and ideas. Wish I had thought of a rectangle and cut the corners before all this consternation. Buxton’s popsicle sticks got me started. Then I spotted some of my trial pieces in the trash. All I had to do was shift the key a tad on the jig and I recut those trial pins smaller, so they fit in between the project’s pins. A pair of clamps going both ways and a little tweaking and it was tight and square. Thanks again everybody.
Bill