Queation about cauls - Printable Version +- Woodnet Forums (https://forums.woodnet.net) +-- Thread: Queation about cauls (/showthread.php?tid=7340680) |
Queation about cauls - Ray Newman - 07-01-2018 Colleagues: am fabricating a small book shelf -- 72" H x 15" W x 12" Deep from 3/4" plyw'd. Dadoes will house the shelves and a dado and tongue joint will fit the top and bottom to the sides. A Fellow Woodworker suggested making 6' long 2x4" cauls to close it all during the glue up. He suggested first rip the 2x4 to uniform width, then place on edge with a playing card (or two) in the center of the cauls and apply pressure to close it all up. 'Nevva' utilized cauls before. My question is: will 6' 2x4 placed on edge bend enough to apply enough pressure to close it all up? Thanks in advance for any information. RE: Queation about cauls - Cooler - 07-02-2018 I've built many shelf units from plywood. I just clamp with two bar clamps on each shelf (one on the front and one on the rear). Four shelves will require 8 clamps. Plus one long one if you need to square things up. RE: Queation about cauls - giradman - 07-02-2018 (07-02-2018, 07:31 AM)Cooler Wrote: I've built many shelf units from plywood. I just clamp with two bar clamps on each shelf (one on the front and one on the rear). Four shelves will require 8 clamps. Plus one long one if you need to square things up. @ Ray - agree w/ the above - I've made a lot of bookcases over the decades (typically I have one fixed shelf to help hold the carcass together and then use a hole jig to make adjustable shelves) - but I use just clamps for that purpose and of course make sure that the diagonals match. Now, I own a pair of commercial cauls (from Lee Valley) - the 3 ft ones shown below - notice the degree of the central bow - doubt that a playing card or two will do much - usually 'homemade' cauls are made from a hardwood w/ the bow planed from the center to both ends, taking off more wood as the ends are approached. I've used the cauls when gluing up a panel to keep the joints aligned, saving on surface prep later. Dave . RE: Queation about cauls - Ray Newman - 07-02-2018 Gent: thanks for the information as I thought the advice given sounded too good to be true! Just need to find and dig out more clamps from the shop storage corner. Again, thanks. RE: Queation about cauls - Cooler - 07-02-2018 (07-02-2018, 10:56 AM)Ray Newman Wrote: Gent: thanks for the information as I thought the advice given sounded too good to be true! Just need to find and dig out more clamps from the shop storage corner. Again, thanks. You can't have too many clamps. I did see Norm Abrams (on TV) first clamp, then pin the shelves. He placed the pins (nail gun) at an angle up just under the shelf so it passed through the corner of the shelf and into the dado. Then he could remove the clamp. I would do this if there were not enough clamps. RE: Queation about cauls - mike4244 - 07-02-2018 (07-01-2018, 11:55 PM)Ray Newman Wrote: Colleagues: am fabricating a small book shelf -- 72" H x 15" W x 12" Deep from 3/4" plyw'd. RE: Queation about cauls - AHill - 07-03-2018 If your shelf is only 12" deep, cauls are not required. Just clamp both ends like shown in the Norm picture. If you have k-body or parallel clamps, they'll work even better. |