Sorry I haven’t posted in a couple of days. I had a video to get out. And I feel another video coming on…
One of the reasons it takes me a long time to do some things, is that my mind is always trying to come up with different, and hopefully better ways to do them. Case in point:
In my last post I talked about possibly using my box joint jig, but it turns out it won’t work with stock this wide. So I’m stuck with using the half-laps.
So I’m getting ready to do my glue-up, and I don’t have enough clamps of the required size. I could go to Harbor Freight and get more clamps, but even at a cheap $8 per clamp, I need 8 more of them, so that’s a lot of money. Not to mention that I don’t want to figure out where to store them.
So here’s where my clamping brainstorming comes in, and here’s the progression:
Corner Clamps
My corner clamps aren’t really for compressing parts together like you do when gluing. But they really help in getting everything aligned, and keeping them that way.
Bar Clamps
Here’s the bar clamps, and as I said, I only have 4 this size.
Bessey Strap Clamp
I have one of these Bessey Strap Clamps, but it’s not nearly long enough. However, that led me to:
HF Ratcheting Tie Down Straps
I have a couple of these Harbor Freight ratcheting tie-down strap thingies, which are long enough. So the question is, how best to use them to clamp the cabinet?
Using the Bessey Strap Clips
Turns out the Bessey strap clips fit on the HF straps, so this looks like a good option. Except, of course, that I’ll have to loosen the strap to apply the glue, and then I’ll have to re-position the clips again afterwards.
Custom Strap Clips
So I made these wooden clips, and I’m using double-sided tape to stick them in place. I think this is going to make it easy to get the straps back on, after applying the glue.
A Little Bit of Everything
So I’m going to try all three clamping options, plus I’ll still use my corner clamps to hold everything in place. Wish me luck!
More later.
Addendum
I posted a YouTube video about all this. Check it out:
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