Best way to glue wood without clamps?

[Pete Mazz]

Get one clamp at least. Buy a length or 2 of 1/8" or 3/16" dowel and a corresponding drill bit. Glue the joint, clamp it at 1 spot. Drill a hole about 2" deep. Put a healthy drop of glue into the hole and tap in a length of dowel (if you cut them into pieces slightly longer than the hole depth). Move the clamp to the next position and repeat.

Another option is to rent a brad gun and glue and pin it together. There are new guns out that just use batteries and are supposedly very nice.

Pete

[till]

life without clamps??? impossible.

[Robi Medvesek]

What abaut this solution?

http://www.hajdinjaklabs.com/hl/Photosx.html

Yoi make a groove on each of 2 pices you want to join and then use a pice off wood (2 times as high as the depth of the groove) and put it in between. Then glue the box together and tighten up with the thig that tazzy suggested in post 8.


Robi

[Colin]

How about impact adhesive?

Colin

[Jimmy154]

Originally posted by Chris8sirhC
I never glue anything, even if i have clamps (which i do) without using dowels or screws. I rarely use screws. Even with good clamps there is always a chance that due to the slick nature of the glue, the wood will slide around a little bit. Having a couple of dowels holding the pieces in place prevents this and also adds to the strength of the structure. Try placing them at non perpendicular angles to the piece of wood to better hold the wood in place.

Why didn't I think of that. I also hate screws. Just the idea alone I don't like. But also they either split the MDF if you make the pilot hole too small or they spin freely if you make it too big; and I have yet to find the right size pilot hole.

You don't need claps for speaker building. It makes the joint a little stronger, sooo? The strongest stiffest place in a speaker is the corner. I do use clamps though but they're not necessary, even a weight is not necessary, but definately a good idea. Also using a "fat dog" as a weight is a bad idea.

As for the angles. You can figure that part out on your own I'm sure. Actually you can figure out all of this on your own, probably.

[angshudas]

Originally posted by Vikash


I think the method used to attach the pieces together is quite important. I attach one panel at a time and in a very particular order so that only the ends of each panel can overhang. These are then trimmed off with a router and flush trim bit for perfect finish every time. For this method I use 4 precisely cut panels and two slightly larger-than-required panels.

As each panel is attached the enclosure will gradually sqaure up.

Vikas, can you elaborate a bit. I use a simple hand saw, is there any good way to square up the box. I can never get it right.

Angshu

[Vikash]

I'm not sure you can get results that would satisfy me with hand tools only. IME a router and flush trim but is a must for a perfect finish enclosure, along with square cut panels to begin with.

I cut four panels as accurate as possible on the table saw (get your supplier to do this) and the remaining two oversized by several mm (at least). I then glue a panel at a time in such a way that only the panel edge overhangs if at all:
1) bottom and front panel.
2) attach to oversized side panel.
2.5) *bracing goes in
3) rear panel.
4) top panel.
5) remaining oversized side panel.

As each panel goes in the box squares itself but this absolutely requires clamps to be perfect. I got away with two long and two shorter clamps for my sub. Once all panels are on you will have en enclosure with many overhanging edges which I then trim down with the router for a perfect finish.

Comprehensive images of how I put my latest sub together using this method can be found here: http://www.vikash.info/audio/xls10/construction.asp

The router I use cost only £20 and the panels you can have cut square at your supplier. As someone pointed out earlier, you can never have too many clamps, although I scrape by with four.

[Sherman]

Originally posted by angshudas


Vikas, can you elaborate a bit. I use a simple hand saw, is there any good way to square up the box. I can never get it right.

Angshu

If you have a circular saw then make one of these- http://members.aol.com/woodmiser1/sawbd.htm for cutting square panels. Very low cost and extremely accurate.

[ericallan]

Clamps can be bought cheaply at bargain shops these days, or those shops that sell cheap tools and car mats etc. I got 0.5 metre ones for UK£1 each and metre length ones for UK£2 each. Do they have these type of shops in your part of the world?

[mr_push_pull]

Originally posted by ericallan
Clamps can be bought cheaply at bargain shops these days, or those shops that sell cheap tools and car mats etc. I got 0.5 metre ones for UK£1 each and metre length ones for UK£2 each. Do they have these type of shops in your part of the world?

I found clamps after all. But... My future enclosures will be 1m and a few cm and I only found 1m clamps. I bought one but now I kinda regret it. Because it seems to be of low quality, the rod is pretty thin, you can bend it with one hand and it is not even straight. Or is it supposed to be like this? It is slightly curved and when you tighten it the rod stretches. And above all, it cost 10 US dollars, not too cheap I think.