A glue-up gone wrong *LINK*

What are those sayings?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."

"Experience: something it would have been very nice to have right before you need it."

Thanks for sharing your pain with us all, Jeremy. It takes guts. Hope it finally went well.

Re: A glue-up gone wrong

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>A couple of observations:

Why put the backer boards in slots? Why try to do final assembly on them at the same time as you are assembling the frame? No one does it this way, and I think now you understand why. The back, since it can only be seen from the front, is usually installed in a rabbet around the frame, and usually just tacked in place, well after the frame has been assembled, and usually after the frame has been finished. If the back will be visible, assemble it separately, as a flat frame and panel.

Always do a dry assembly, with all the parts, and all the clamps, and everything else you think you will need, including the glue bottle, and including a written procedure, if it is complicated. If anything goes wrong, or you get confused, start over, until you get it right. If you find you need extra hands, the extra hands need the experience and practice of the dry run as much as you do. Do it with the clock running, to make sure you do not exceed the open time of your glue. After the dry assembly, make sure you can check everything for plumb and square. Don't just assume your measureing tools will work right after all the clamps are in the way.

Even if you are lucky enough to get it square during the dry run, do not assume it will be square after final assembly. Make sure you understand the techniques of adjusting the clamps to pull it to square.

Why do you think they call it a dry run?

Re: A glue-up gone wrong

Jeremy Osner

>Thanks for the pointers, William -- these will come in useful next time around. (I still have one more of these to assemble.)

Re: A glue-up gone wrong

Brad in Ottawa

>Thanks for posting Jeremy, do you find tracking your experiences in the blog improves your woodworking???

I have started a journal in which I keep track of projects. I have yet to accumulate enough material in it to be of value. (I just started 6 months ago.)

Brad

Re: A glue-up gone wrong

Gary Smyth

>Jeez. Dry run! You learn after one such incident as yours. You won't EVER forget this lesson.

Experience is what you get...

Greg Phillips, Berrien Springs, MI

>when you don't get what you want.

Cheers,

Greg

Re: A glue-up gone wrong

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>I learned the hard way that there can be a lot more to it than just "do a dry run." As you do the first dry run, and after you complete it, you have to think about how it went, and if you did everything smoothly and quickly. You have to make sure your glue bottle is full, your glue bucket and rag and brush are clean and conveniently located. As you remove the clamps from the dry run, you have to plan carefully where you put them down, so that you can pick them up again in the right order, without having to move another one that you set on top during the disassembly. You have to check that all your clamp pads are intact, whatever you use to keep the pipes away from the wood are in place, no glue drips on the pads, etc. For a complicated glue up, in may be necessary to practice it two or three times, to make sure everything goes smoothly. With two people, you also have to practice the terminology, and make sure that both of you are not trying to be in the same place at the same time.

Good pointers, Sir Wm.

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>

Re: A glue-up gone wrong

Jeremy Osner

>Well I can't tell for sure if it helps my woodworking but it does help me organize me thoughts some and provide a useful reference for me to check what happened with projects I've done in the past. Of late I have been pretty lacksadaisical about maintaining it which reduces its usefulness significantly.

Slow Learner

Jeremy Osner

>Well... I've had similar experiences before to tell the truth... Takes me a while. My problem with doing dry runs on joinery is I always worry I'm going to damage the joint while assembling and disassembling it.