I went back and looked over my workbench build thread here. I already had the slab glued up when I opened that thread, and I don't remember seeing anyone else use this method since.

I glued up my benchtop in one go. All the pieces, all clamped together with wet glue on every face and it was finished. I see lots of folks gluing two pieces together and then pairs and so on, and it works for folks. I am not saying it is a bad thing to do, I just don't have that kind of patience.

Starting out all my F clamps, my big ones, could clamp two pieces of construction lumber face to face, but not three. I looked at F clamps at the homestore. I did buy one 36 inch F clamp from team blue, it was about $30. The bar on it bows pretty easy when trying to clamp something 24 inches wide. I looked at Bessey's at my local hardwood shoppe, I can't afford those.

So I went back to the home stores. I bought some 2x8 construction lumber, and a bunch of 1/2 diameter all thread with washers, fender washers and nuts to match. I did have to get some 6 foot lengths of all thread to make 3 foot pieces from, but my tap and die set goes up to 1/2 anyway, and I got a hacksaw, so no worries. And I got a 5/8 drill bit already.

So I cut the 2x8 a bit longer than my bench top, and drilled two lines of 5/8 holes in the two pieces of 2x8. I used a pair of sawhorses leveled to each other to hold the future slab up off the ground, clamped it up dry, took the clamp back off, spread all the glue, clamped it back together and left it in the clamp about two or three days. Worked fine.

I do like to get some wax paper between the wet glue and the all thread, easier clean up that way. Also possible to drive wedges or shims inbetween the all thread and the glue up panel to keep the panel flat. This system is not as fast as Bessey's, but with a dry clamp up before the glue bottle gets opened I can generate a right lot of clamping force with this inexpensive system before the glue sets.

The 2x6 in this picture with the holes in it is for gluing up thinner panels than a benchtop, but I am using the same all thread. I expect to be gluing up a moderate panel in the next week or two, I will try to get a picture of the thing in use before this thread gets too long in the tooth.

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