Glue Up Question - How to keep dog holes clear + Other

[Lyndon Graham]

Within a few weeks, I hope to have chips on the ground for my cabinet makers bench. To save $, I will make the frame of construction grade softwood but the top of hard maple glueing together 3.5" x 1.5" (or thereabouts

Question 1: I intend to have square dog holes and will make them by dato'ing out the slot with my Tablesaw. Then I will glue them together. When I glue, there obviously be squeeze out inside the square dog hole. Is there anyway to keep the glue from sticking to the wood inside the dog hole? If not, what's the best plan to not have to chisel for hours?

Question 2: As maple is rather pricey, do the boards on the top need to be continiuous? In other words, instead of a single 7 ft maple board, would a glued up a 5 ft and 2 ft boards work as well?. I find my project estimates are off due to the wasted wood and would like to save a few bucks. On the other hand, I do not want to regret this down the road (I don't want to be penny wise and dollar foolish).

Thanks

[Howard Acheson]

>> Is there anyway to keep the glue from sticking to the wood inside the dog hole?

Yes, apply some paste wax to the parts that will get the overflow. Then the glue will pop right off when it is dry. Just run a chisel--corner chisel if you have one--down the seam.

[David Gilbert]

When I glued up my top with rectangular dog holes I marked where the dog holes were going to be with a pencil. I then spread the glue and tried to avoid those areas. I put more glue on the other side. After adjusting the boards, I used every clamp in my shop and then scrubbed every dog hole with an old tooth brush and hot water. This cleaned up the holes just fine. My top was hard maple from a bowling alley and didn't seem to be effected by the extra water.

Regarding using short and longer lengths, I am pretty sure that will work as long as you flip them so you don't have two of the short ones together. If your top is at least 2 - 3 inches thick there will be plenty of support across it.

I'd like to see some pictures.

Cheers,

[Lyndon Graham]

I'd like to see some pictures.

Cheers,

Thanks

At my rate of progress, it may be a-while. 1st chips on the ground arounf Christmas. And remember, I'm not going for a nice looking table but rather a very functional table at a reasonable cost:

I am going to use contruction lumber for the base. So it will be ugly down below. But up top I want to sacrifice nothing:
Veritas® Twin-Screw Vise
Veritas large Front Vise
Thick Maple top
I will probably make the outer edging out of Purple Heart (what the heck, 8/4 purple heart is the same price as hard 8/4 maple, maybe even a litle cheaper.

(I bouth a nice set of plans and just the cost of the maple for the base was $300-400. I can do it for $50 using Douglas Fir.)

[Joe Spackle]

Question 2: As maple is rather pricey, do the boards on the top need to be continiuous? In other words, instead of a single 7 ft maple board, would a glued up a 5 ft and 2 ft boards work as well?. I find my project estimates are off due to the wasted wood and would like to save a few bucks. On the other hand, I do not want to regret this down the road (I don't want to be penny wise and dollar foolish).

Why yes you can in fact the center of my bench has no piece longer than 22" ( the dog areas are full length though
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/BCStudios/workbench/workbench002.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/BCStudios/workbench/workbench003.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/BCStudios/workbench/workbench004.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/BCStudios/workbench/workbench005.jpg

This was the bench of frugalness, The base was pallet stickers and some junk oak skins to thicken pieces up
The top is cherry ends with a maple top the main body is 5/4 maple 2 1/2" wide (thick) ( all cutoffs from another project) and some misc 4/4 and 8/4

there are five continuous lengths of stock in the entire bench two for the dog area, one at the back of the tool tray and the two stretchers for the trestle.

Joe

[harry strasil]

just mask the non glue area with blue painters tape before applying tje glue.

[Frank Drew]

Lyndon,

Unless you get overly enthusiastic spreading the glue, I don't think you'll have a problem. You can pare off any big gobs of glue in the dog hole corners with a chisel or small scraper after a half hour or so, and so what if there's some glue smear on the sides of the holes? It won't affect anything and you'll never see it.

Don't forget to slightly angle your dog hole dados, but I'm sure you know that.

[Lyndon Graham]

Don't forget to slightly angle your dog hole dados, but I'm sure you know that.

3 degrees, and thanks

[Dave Novak]

3 degrees, and thanks

I doubt it makes much difference, but the instructions that came with my dogs suggested 7 degrees.

[Lyndon Graham]

I doubt it makes much difference, but the instructions that came with my dogs suggested 7 degrees.

My book said 3, but to be safe I Guess I will go ahead and buy the dogs, thanks. You may have saved me.

[David Keller NC]

"I bouth a nice set of plans and just the cost of the maple for the base was $300-400. I can do it for $50 using Douglas Fir."

Lyndon - Something doesn't sound right - what are you getting charged for maple? I live on the East coast so I don't have any experience in OR, but that sounds mighty high for maple - around here 8/4 sells for about $3.50 a b.f. You can, of course, build the top out of alot of different woods - Chris Schwarz built his out of Southern Yellow Pine, and I think he noted in his blog that the total cost for the wood for the bench was around $175.