Glue press or plano panel clamps?

[andy photenas]

Hi all, do any of you have any experience with either the glue press on amazon for 300 bucks or the plano version for 420 or so?

I am starting to build around 6-10 kitchens per year now and i am looking for something to take the clamp wrestling i do now with cauls and clamps out of the picture.

What kind of glue clamps would you guys suggest ?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Instead of cauls, search "Larry's Clamp." It's a pneumatic clamp that will bring board into alignment prior to applying clamping pressure. You could build a vertical clamping rack using either pipe clamps, or Biese clamps. The rack need to have a 5 - 10 degree slope from vertical to make loading easy. Remember that panels only need to stay in the clamps for 45 minutes, according to Titebond's label.

[J.R. Rutter]

I had a wall full of Plano clamps for a few years until we needed something faster. They work well, but do not have enough side pressure to pull staves into alignment. (I doubt that anything in this category would do this.) I found it easiest to start by clamping the center first and then use an "F" shaped light pry bar to lever boards into place on the ends while tightening clamps from the center - out. It was great being able to use the setup for long parts. We did plenty of 8-10 ft long panels over the years.

When a used Rosenquist RF press became available, we went that route.

[Patrick Kane]

I had 4-6 plano clamps for a hot minute. I bought them dirt cheap, installed them, determined they were not going to work for me, and immediately sold them for a bit of a profit. The theory/concept is fantastic. In practice, they are definitely not as fantastic. I remember there being a decent amount of fiddling around to get them setup for your material. On top of it all, they were robust enough for what i wanted to use them for--gluing 8/4 tops.


Its hard to beat a proper clamp rack by JLT or similar. Used ones are usually in the $2,000 range. Yes, very expensive, but if you are doing some volume then they are beyond helpful. The jury rigged version of a clamp rack would probably be jorgensen ibeams with a JLT pnematic flattener or a larry clamp(same thing).

[Mark e Kessler]

I had 4-6 plano clamps for a hot minute. I bought them dirt cheap, installed them, determined they were not going to work for me, and immediately sold them for a bit of a profit. The theory/concept is fantastic. In practice, they are definitely not as fantastic. I remember there being a decent amount of fiddling around to get them setup for your material. On top of it all, they were robust enough for what i wanted to use them for--gluing 8/4 tops.


Its hard to beat a proper clamp rack by JLT or similar. Used ones are usually in the $2,000 range. Yes, very expensive, but if you are doing some volume then they are beyond helpful. The jury rigged version of a clamp rack would probably be jorgensen ibeams with a JLT pnematic flattener or a larry clamp(same thing).

Many moons ago I also had the JLT, think it had 3 levels and 12-16 clamps worked awesome for panel glueups

Mark

[Bradley Gray]

I have the Plano press mounted on a wall for glueing table tops and other furniture panels. I would agree that it isn't fast and not super powerful. i think if I had more of the individual clamps (closer together) the leveling action would be stronger. What I like is the flatness of the results since the clamps are aligned across the width and length of the glue up. I also like not having the glue-up on one of my benches and having the glue surface horizontal seems to reduce clean-up.

I think if I was working at your volume I would look for a used clamp rack and maybe a leveler as well.

Another huge time saver is a glue spreader.

[johnny means]

It's gonna cost you.

[Mark e Kessler]

Thats the one I had...

It's gonna cost you.