Well, they say, you can never have too many clamps. This is a good example of
having the right number of clamps for a cabinet glueup. The photo is from the Bowclamp's
Internet forum.
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And
here is the same glue-up with two clamps on each surface, but with a Bowclamp caul giving
the uniform gluing pressure of the large number of clamps.
I guess that means now, you can never have enough Bowclamp cauls. Just
kidding. I received a pair of cauls from Bowclamp, and it didn't take me long to
appreciate their simplicity and effectiveness.
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Actually, their arrival was at the very best time — I was about to start
glue up of this mahogany panel. I will try the caul out on just these two boards for
the sake of this illustration.
I had edge jointed the pieces so I didn't expect the caul to have to do much
work. They are about 37" wide so I would normally use these two clamps and then add 2
or 3 others.
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I didn't
want to add glue yet to measure squeeze out so I placed a single piece of paper in the
midpoint of these boards.
I tightened the end clamps hand tight and found that I could still pull the
paper out. A little more tightened and the paper started to resist, but I could still
slide it out.
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Then I clamped the very same boards but this time added the Bowclamp Caul on
both edges and tightened the clamps. By the time the clamps were locking the ends, the
middle section was very tight. I couldn't remove the paper. If I glued the joint, there
would be squeeze out uniformly along the joint.
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So this
is a panel that has uniform pressure, thanks to the e Bowclamp Cauls. There is nothing new
about cauls. The master carpenter/cabinet maker used them all the time. I think they faded
from popular use because good clamps were readily available, and we all
like our clamps. Having looked closely at the Bowclamp Cauls, these are
very well designed and crafted. I think there is more to them than meets the eye, not that
we couldn't make them, but that these are already available.
You will see a lot of their use in future projects.
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