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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