Making A Better Clamping Caul - Adjustable Panel Clamp How-To
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- Опубліковано 19 сер 2024
- Clamp Caul. Panel Caul. Clamping Caul. Panel Clamp... So many different names for what is not always a necessity, but really helpful when you need to keep boards aligned in a glue-up. I opted to make this one adjustable to certain sizes, as opposed to being full adjustable, because I typically only make a handful of different sized panel glue-ups and I wanted to keep this jig as simple as possible. There are at least a few videos out that go through the process of making fully adjustable ones, so that might be worth looking into if you need that functionality. Hopefully this gives you a plan, or at least ideas for making your own clamp cauls!
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The elegance of a simple design; thank you!
So simple I love it. Someone asked about bowing if it’s a wide glue up: one trick is to introduce a camber or crown so that the cauls are not perfectly flat but that the center of the two sticks/cauls are just ever so much higher than the ends where the knobs are...that way when you tighten the knobs, it exerts an ever slight force in the center and evens out towards the ends.
Came here for this comment.
I've never seen this design in the past ten years of being an amateur woodworker and traveling around UA-cam - I love these -I wish I found this earlier - these will save me so much time. Thanks man!
I recently discovered this video and made these cauls. Fantastic design and easy to make just saved me hundreds of dollars, I was considering the Clampzilla clamps from WP but these offer me a great alternative with clamps I already have. I used a piece of oak recovered from pallet wood so my only investment was the hardware. Thank you for making and publishing this video.
I am alway glue boards into a panel. I just made two of these clamps and the work great. I wish I had seen this video a long time ago. So simple and easy to make. One suggestion is to drill the two clamps at the same time, one on top of the other. This keeps them in alignment. Thanks fir this video.
Some time back I crated some of these with an angled piece attached to one side to glue up my guitar pedalboards. Man, did it make my life so much easier. Great job.
thanks for sharing.], I agree with your t-nut installation of sucking them into the caul.
You're quickly becoming my favorite UA-cam woodworker. You're super informative, love your directions on methods/builds. Great idea on these cauls making them adjustable to the size of the stock you're using.
Wow thank you for such a kind comment!
OMG! This is brilliant!! I'm making a zillion of these tonight!
Packing tape, genius. Thank you very much.
For a non-stick surface, you might also try UHMW tape.
Great idea. I’m going to make a set. As far as glue sticking I made a set with 2x2’s and clamps but in a desperate need and rush I used some plastic wrap from the kitchen and wrap the wood clamps and it worked out well or the green frog tape worked good to.
I've been looking for an easy way to make panel clamps - well done - this is freakin awesome
Super idea! Have already figured out where to store them. Thanks for sharing
At a friend's shop i saw clamping cauls with a slight camber. About 1/32 for a 20" caul. He said it provided more even pressure in the middle.
@mattholsen7060 He's absolutely right! I did a video on tapered cauls as well.
So simple and nice and handy!
Simple and effective, very nice design.
Just the way I like it. Thanks!
That was cool and a really good idea. Thanks
Jon
Thanks for watching!
Very cool idea and I'm gonna make a bunch of these for myself!
Awesome! I hope they help. I know mine have. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for a great video. I clearly need about 10x the patience if I ever want to be a great carpenter🤣
Haha! That’s always a struggle.
Efficiency is the way to make money. Good job!
Yessir! Thank you!!
I often wonder about making cauls with a slight bow to them, so that they will apply roughly uniform pressure throughout their entire length. You could do this pretty easily if you loaded them while cutting on a table saw; they would bow the opposite direction when the load was removed.
Thanks for sharing Jodee. Haven't seen you on UA-cam for awhile. Hope you're doing well.
I've used a very similar design for years. Started with wing nuts then tighten bolt with a drill. Not sure why I never thought of star nobs amd t nuts. I have plenty of both.
thank you
Just did a 36" glue-up the low-tech way with loose boards as cauls. It sort of worked but sucked... Definintely going to make a set of these, thanks for the video!
I love your channel - you're informative, to the point, short, simple, helpful. Thanks, I'll definitely be building some of these. (One question though - were you teasing your British viewers at 5:55 when you said, "Throw you knob on there." lol?)
That’s a nice clamp. I have 3 of those that I use regular
Very cool 😎 need to make some of these myself
They work great! Thanks for watching!
These are perfect! I am going to make some asap. I really like the design of these cauls👍👍
Awesome man! Thanks for watching! Let me know how it goes.
Great idea, thanks for sharing 👍👍
Thanks for watching!
Great job.
Thanks!!
Great and simple idea. Gonna make them
bom trabalho
thx
Really GREAT VIDEO!
When you made the clamping cauls , I didn’t see that you made the curve on the top , did you make the curves and if you did would you aim the curves toward each other?
Thanks
Awesome Idea
Very smart
Excellent job and well done, BUT there should be a slight taper at the ends (±1/32" to 1/64" over 6 to 8 inches) so pressure in the middle is slightly greater than the ends. This will insure the panel is absolutely flat and stable. The taper can be done with a hand plane in a few quick strokes.
Thanks for the awesome feedback. I don't know that "should" is necessarily the appropriate term though. Tapers work great for a specific length caul, but that taper has to change based on the length. The same taper over a longer span will produce a varied pressure. Even then, pressure is only applied to the center and ends. I've thought a lot about that subject and a curved caul seems to be the winning ticket, but again the curve would have to change based on length. With an adjustable caul, as long as the adjusters are close to the edges of the panel, there should be plenty of holding power to keep stuff in place. Funny, "to taper, or not to taper" seems to be one of the great woodworking debates that everyone has a different opinion on.
@@InspireWoodcraft a long adjustable caul might be a good use case for the faux taper playing card trick.
great idea, thanks for posting, from Garry in the UK
Hey thanks for watching!
Brilliant!
Thanks!
A recent issue I am having is with material thickness of hardwood bought at the big box stores. As I buy a stack of poplar for example thickness of all the boards does not match and I have to thickness plane down to the dimension of the thinnest board. If I don’t do this these clamps touch the thickest board and not the thinnest so the glue up is unacceptable.
Nice solution! I like it. Side note: every time I try to call my clamps, they never come over to the bench. I think Paul Jackman figured it out, but I haven't yet. ;)
Don’t let it get to you. He’s figured pretty much EVERYTHING out. Ha!
Dear Jodie, nice video showing how to turn a clumsy job into a smooth, elegant one. Other presenters plane the bottom edge of their top cauls to give a curve. This makes the centre the starting pressure point. Only with strong clamping does the caul contact all the way out. With your flat bottomed top caul, do you get good downward pressure all the way along the board? Does your design produce flat boards across the full width? Cheers.
Thanks for sharing that
This is a great idea thank you
Thanks a ton!
Thanks for helping me figure out what my next shop project will be
I got you! 👍🏻
Thoughts on the Rockler panel clamps?
Love it! Encourage adding a link to where we can buy the KNOBS. Is there a stronger option on the bottom side where the T-nuts are located?
Great and simple. I would like to know, how I can prevent them to bow in each end when applying force and the thickness of the boards clamped is high?
The height itself won’t affect the bowing. It’s more to do with how far the clamping pressure is from the edge of the material you’re clamping. Farther away = more bowing, closer to the edges = less bowing.
This is a terrific video and a great project. Wish I had seen it earlier as I’ve always just used plywood for quick cauls with C-clamps on them. I just made a 27” deep desk out of five boards - curious if at that length you recommend using some kind of curved or bowed caul to add pressure to the middle? I have tried this but it recommended a lot. I’m also considering trying angle iron or an aluminum c-channel or something rigid that won’t bend, but haven’t figured out the best solution yet. Thanks for the video.
Awesome and thanks! Can you tell me what brand of clamps you use in the video, maybe also send a link, hopefully affiliate link so you can make a little money from recommending?
Me agrada tu idea es excelente pero tengo la imprecion de que solo preciona en las orillas talvez si hicieras un leve rebaje a la pieza superior de cada orilla sin rebajar el centro tendria mejor presión en el medio seria de 1mm de orilla a centro asi la presión seria uniforme claro hablando de piezas que sean mas anchas
Something just occurred to me - it doesn't look like you wrapped your cauls in anything. How are you keeping the cauls from not sticking to the glue squeeze out?
You might use wax paper (it’s cheap) to prevent glue dripping on your clamps and also any that may stick to your work surface. I reuse mine also.
I buy parchment paper from Costco to save even more money and it lasts forever, especially when I reuse it, like you said. I use it on the work surface but not on the clamps because of the risk of it getting pinched between panels when things get clamped together.
I buy parchment paper at Wilton (baking store, wife has a confection business) it's ridiculously cheap around the holiday's for a huge box. Stock up
How do you like your Porter Cable jointer. That's a great idea I'm going to need a few of those
I actually like it a lot, although I'm ready for an upgrade for sure. It would be nice to be able to tackle larger projects.
Thanks. Where do you get the knobs?
Great idea but it seems you’d wanna make em outta hardwood rather than pine like hard maple and it would have to be totally flat
You might have missed it, but I made them out of poplar and gave them several passes on the jointer. That's about as perfectly flat as it gets as far as I know. Hard maple would be an excellent option, but I had the poplar on hard and needed to keep moving so I used it. To be honest, in my experience making them out of super hard wood doesn't make as big of a difference as just using them the right way. The idea isn't necessarily to force them into submission, just to keep them aligned. That's why I made them adjustable as far as the distance between the screws. The closer the screws are to the work piece, the stronger it is, hardwood or not.
By the way, I love your haircut!
Same barber? Ha!
@@InspireWoodcraft Absolutely!
Too stupid simple.... and I'm going to make several tomorrow! I have all of the stuff on hand and it beats the heck out of dealing with loose cauls and clamps. Thanks.
Awesome! Yeah super handy. Dealing with all the loose calls and clamps is the WORST! Thanks for watching!
I've seen commercially made cauls that taper at the clamping ends. Did you taper yours? If not, will panels want to distort in the center? I plan to make some cauls and I like your design, but I want to make sure I don't have the center distort. Thanks for your feedback.
So you bring up a good point and it’s one I completely forgot to mention. The only issue I have with tapered cauls is determining how much of a taper to put on. A taper on a long caul will not work identically to the same taper on a short caul. I didn’t taper mine for that reason. However, most of my glue-ups are 8, 12 and 16 inches wide, meaning if I keep the clamping bolts close to those measurements, there will be little bowing in the center. With my measurements in the video, it only leaves about a half inch wiggle room. That was intensional because I almost always have a little extra to trim off later. Of course if you clamped an 8 inch wide panel in a 16 inch span, the force on the ends of the cauls would cause bowing and they would be useless. I’m not totally sold on the tapers. I think the only way to really make it “perfect” would be to have it be an arched system, so that the pressure starts in the center and is applied evenly across all boards the same. That’s a lot of math and it would all change as soon as you changed sizes. I think at that point we’re splitting hairs. Thanks for bringing that up! (Also I pulled that panel out of the clamps this morning and there was zero deflection 👍🏻)
@@InspireWoodcraft This info is good to know. I will keep this in mind when I make mine.
Traduire en Francais.Mercie
I really hate having to throw my knob. It hurts LOL
You win! Ha! I wondered how long it would take someone to say something like that. When I replayed it all I could think was "Well, there goes the neighborhood!"
Hoddi and hat ?????
Hey it’s cold outside!
How many clams could a clamp caul clamp if a clamp caul could clamp clams? 🤪