Tip for Centering Clamping Pressure

If you use pipe clamps to glue up a solid-wood panel, it's important that the clamping pressure is centered on the thickness of the panel. If it isn't, you'll end up with a buckled panel. What I do to center clamping pressure is fit a dowel that's the same diameter as the thickness of the panel between the clamp jaws and the panel (see Photo). The dowel redistributes the clamping pressure so it's centered on the workpiece. The result is a perfectly flat, glued-up panel.
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Applying Edging

Gluing hardwood edging to plywood has never been one of my favorite tasks. It’s always tricky to keep the edging from slipping while tightening down the clamps. So to help hold the edging in place, I made some special clamping blocks. These blocks have a shallow, wide groove on one side that's sized to just fit over the edging and plywood. This holds the edging flush with the plywood. (Click on the drawing for a larger version.)

In case you're wondering, to prevent the blocks from getting glued to the workpiece, I apply wax to the surface of the blocks before using them.

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