I’m about to glue up a semi-complex plywood cabinet carcass and I want to make sure the corners are 90 degrees. I’d like to use something like this to hold the corners true, but I’m having a hard time rationalizing $33 for a pair of square corners.
Anyone out there have a good yankee solution for holding square corners while you glue?
thanks!
Matt
Replies
You can make some out of plywood say 4" , make sure the corner is square then cut the L shape out and use clamps to hold square , a square piece of plywood can also be clamped .
dusty
House framers use metal connectors of many types, usually called "Simpson ties". Among them are 90° angle connectors that will do the job and are very cheap compared to the "tools" you are referring to. Find a building supply store and browse. Or check out http://www.strongtie.com
DR
The Simpson Strong ties was going to be my suggestion. Bring a square with you and find the perfect ones. Or tap them into perfect squareness. They have these at HD and they're no more than a buck or two.
i needed to do exactly what you need to do, onsite. simple had to be the answer. i took a piece of 4" wide plywood, and using a chop saw, i cut a 4" length.checking one corner to be square, mark it very clearly. i drilled a hole with a forstner bit, i used a 2
' sawtooth, actually, but you could probably get by with even a 1
' hole.AS long as two clamp heads will fit..i used some f clamps with a fairly low profile head...adjust the hole if u have bigger clamp heads... anyway, file a flat on each of the square sides , for your clamps , and they will work much like the commercial angle brackets for next to nothing. its very easy to make very large or small ones, and there is no deflection because it is still essentially still a square of ply...worked for me in a pinch so well i use them quite a bit...p.s. ..if u make a permanent set, wax them to keep dreaded glue sqeeze out off them...good luck...any one of the good ideas posted will work I'm sure...GOODLUCK!
kummell,
I made a bunch of those using 45 degree mitered plywood pieces and glued cleats to the sides of the plywood for clamping. However, I don't use them very much. I prefer to use either my crosscut sled and TS fense and clamp the carcass to those perpendicular sides...or...take a carpenters square and nail on a couple of cleats to the workbench and then clamp the carcass to the cleats.
I agree with oldusty, that's exactly what I did except I used 3/4" mdo and they work fine to align the corners.
John
I have used square corners from plywood, too. I've drilled holes in them to accept one end of an F-clamp. But I, too. use the back panel to square and check diagonals for equal measure before final fastening.
Edited 9/4/2006 12:02 pm ET by byhammerandhand
I follow oldusty's method too. Works great.
Another thing to do if you have a dado set is to set your dado to the thickness of the parts you want to assemble. Then, (before mounting your dado set), run 5 inch squares of inch and a half material through your table saw twice so that you have a 90 degree corner. Mark the two sides that make up the 90 degree corner so you won't mess up the next step.
Put your dado set in the saw and set your rip guide to 2.5 inches and your dado depth to 3/4 inches. Then, with one of the marked sides of your 5 inch blocks against the rip guide, rip your dado across the center of your block. Turn your block so the other marked side is against your fence and rip your 2nd intersecting dado.
With 4 or more of these made, you now have an assembly tool that 1) holds the parts up without the need for clamps until you are ready to glue, and...2) holds said parts at 90 degrees WHEN you use the clamps to glue.
Too simple for words - gotta try it for the real AH-HAH! factor to settle in.
Edited 9/4/2006 8:54 pm ET by Mike
Mike, I used the "90 degree dados in a big hunk of wood" (do they have a proper name?) - what a fantastic idea - thanks so much! Frugal and better functionality than buying those darn things from Woodcraft!
Kummell,
I like the premade ones at Rockler (http://www.rockler.com/CategoryView.cfm?Cat_ID=1523)
They're only about $12 for the big ones and $8 for the Mini ones. Given different situations, I use many of the tips above, but these get used all the time. Cheap and handy. They go on sale frequently too.
Jeremy
Name? Ahhhh, sure - "90 degree assembly blocks" - yeah, that's it, yeah.
They work great, don't they.
MikeIf my hands were only as smart as my head.
I use the back to square the piece. You can glue up the four peices but until you put the back on the corners are apt to go out of square.
Matt,
I just use aluminum "angle iron" (yeah, that sounds a bit weird). Check it with an accurate square; if it's not exactly 90° it's real easy to adjust in a vice. Cheap too: about $4 or $5 for a 4 foot long piece of 1.5" wide on each "side."
Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen!
James
ok, so my budget attempt this weekend... I ended up trying metal electrical outlet boxes and clamps. The boxes were $1.39 each, not bad, eh? not perfectly square, but very close, good as an extra set up hands.
I do like some of the other ideas - particularly Mike's solution with the dado set - I have some 8/4 cutoffs around that I may try out.
Thanks everyone - I'm glad there are options outside buying something premade!
I made these seemingly aerospace-inspired clamping aides a couple years ago. I think they came from a Wood Mag article. Just make sure they are square across the thickness of the plywood (face-to-edge) in addition to the obvious big right-angle.
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