Corner Clamps for wide glue ups

My wife and I are in the process of building a new Dining table. We are planning to do a 48" square with drop leafs making it +/- 60" round. Also inside of a 6" frame of cherry will be a live edge slab with epoxy. So in preparing I started looking at corner clamps for glue up of that top frame. Of all my clamps nothing will do 6". Went on Amazon and they run $78 each X 4 = $312 which doesn’t work for me. Went to the tube and got some ideas and this is what I came up with and for accuracy cut them out with my Long Mill.

The Vetric CRV is set up for .750 thickness 22 wide X 14 high, I used plywood for strength, used a .125 EM



Corner Clamps.crv (572 KB)
Corner Clamps .125 EM.gcode (49.1 KB)

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Not to rain on your parade, but I think you’re not quite there yet as far as having a set of corner clamps are concerned. I’ve seen this design before and let me assure you, they won’t provide you the clamping pressure you’re looking for. With the setup you’ve got, the inside corner section will force the two pieces apart rather than drawing them together - which is what the outside corner section is doing.

What you need are clamps similar to the ones in the photo I’ve enclosed. Using this style of clamp will apply pressure that forces the two pieces together. I’m sure you will be able to make them using your Longmill. Incidentally, ensure you glue some 80 grit pieces of sandpaper to the edges of the clamps that will bear against the outside of your frames.

Corner clamp idea

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@ApexWoodworks Thanks for the suggestions, I am in the getting ready stage to build, wood comes next week, Dowelling jig arrives tomorrow. I plan to do a bunch of experimenting, ie; test glue ups first and see what works best, I like your design and will make some up. Wish I had seen that design first. It will be my first time with dowel’s also. Most I’ve done was biscuits, Domino cutter not in the budget. Wish the rental places stocked Festool domino cutter. lol

Thanks Marty for the advice,

Bill

@ApexWoodworks Hi Marty, tried your system and it still required an extra clamp. Wit the two clamps holding the 2X2 when I tighten the small clamp in the 45⁰ cutout the other end opens up and thats with dowels. When I add one more clamp diagonally it works. Maybe with small molding it works but the frame for our table top is 6".

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One more change, used some 1/4" scrap not sure what it’s called, shiny on one side hard board and made some cross members, cut some holes for clamps. Thinner frame move the fiber board.

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Now that’s a great modification to the original idea. Cool!