Need to seriously address the commercial brace situation

Maslovians,

There is a problem in the community that you all do not realize yet… The problem is braces, wood vices braces and things to hold other things together while gluing. I am embarrassed to see commercially purchased braces in home CNC furniture videos! I think that the Maslow community should try to collectively figure out a way to produce wood vices from a 4 X 8 sheet of wood that requires something simple for friction and force like come along straps or rope or something that is lower tech and not costly like commercial braces, come on man I had no idea that I would need braces to make furniture with my cnc!

What do you guys think, if we want to make our mark on humanity, we will bring back the wooden fabricated brace (from the midevail times, I bet Michealangelo had some awesome ones) and use it, it should be produced right after the sled is.

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Actually I mean wood clamp, something that braces wood while the glue dries.

Would we need still metal parts, like bolts or other types of fastener?

I did a quick search for wood clamps and found some interesting designs that seem very doable on Maslow.

These are 18th century wood clamps from the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park woodworking collection:
_LEWI_3537a-b_1

These are more contemporary homemade bar clamps:

It seems that threaded rods are the best way to go. If 18th century woodworkers were going through the effort to hand make threaded rods from wood, then they must be much better than any simpler alternatives. So CNC’ed clamps would probably require added hardware, but luckily, that hardware is easy to come by and relatively inexpensive nowadays.

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image
these Deawalt clamps do not have Any Screw… can we just do this?

I’ll have to look into this… if I ever have time to design some…

I really like the one one on the bottom, that one seems to be easily achieved, and I have a ton of treaded rod that I can use for this one. The Lewis and Clark one looks doable too, actually with thread rod. Have you seen any long ones that hold flat pieced together?

How about this:
43%20PM

from here.

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Oh wow I love that one with the cam locking mechanism

These types of braces are used when making cabinets and other larger furniture. There is a much older technique of using rope or straps depending om the size of the project. Then there is the type that we have covered greatly of “Glue and Screw”. Also Nail and Screw as most modern furniture uses and lastly bolt and glue where you reclaim the bolt. You drill and bolt through and glue. After the glue dries you remove the bolt and place a dowel and cover button.

We have mostly talked about “Glue N Screw” and there is some coverage of nailing.

You might check this out in the Wiki:

and you might like:

http://www.boat-building.org/learn-skills/index.php/en/wood/treenails/

Thank you

the right tool for the right job. To do great ood clamps (which will still be
weaker than metal ones), you need to be able to make a good finger joint.

That’s not something the maslow does well.

so it’s not reasonable to berate maslow users for not building additional tools
that their machine isn’t good at building.

Let people spent their time where they want it, most people are interested in
making things far more interesting than sub-standard clamps (especially when
commercial clamps are so cheap)

David Lang

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Apologies if this comes off as too snarky, I don’t know why the initial post got
under my skin like it did.

David Lang

I say that I am embarrassed because it seems so obvious that it would already be in existence. My statement is not a berating one. I will leave it at that. I think that a good strong wood clamp that uses the positive aspects of digital joinery and emphasizes the form factor of plywood can be a superior product over what is bought commercially, also the amount of money that goes making and using wooden clamps could open the woodworking hobby up tremendously which is what the Maslow is about. Good finger joints could be replaced by some other way of applying force and I know it is possible, just a matter of collaboration and time and paradigm shifting.

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Your posts are contradictory. Bring back wooden clamps from Mideval times? Time for a paradigm shift? Hasn’t the paradigm shifted already from primitive wooden mechanisms to less expensive metal and plastics with properties better suited for compression, tension and shear strength? What you’re calling for is a regression… not invention.

Its great that you have an opinion and i don’t belabor your option to express it.

I think the tone of your original post rubbed some folks the wrong way, @iltstb, but I get your point. Some commercial clamps are surprisingly expensive and there is something satisfying about using a tool you made yourself.

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John,

@iltstb, I read and enjoyed the enthusiasm of your original post. The thread demonstrates how hard it can be to communicate, though, doesn’t it?
I keep a pair of clamps like the one I linked above on hand to hold stock in place while I choose where to secure it. There’s satisfaction in using tools you’ve made yourself. :+1:

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Early furniture makers used rope and leather strapping as their primary clamping/holding tools.

I’m not suggesting using Maslow to make rope, of course, just pointing out that clamping devices as a course of normal furniture building isn’t necessary.

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It’s a good idea and it’s been done many times and done easily. Maybe too easily? Meaning you really don’t need a CNC to make them. In fact the CNC may take longer? Especially a Maslow.

And these kinds of clamps are generally made from scrap rather than from fresh ply. But they could be tucked into the open spaces of a project.

They don’t generate a huge amount of force but they are very useful for clamping solid edge banding for instance. Here is a link to a Youtube that shows and example.

I’ve seen it done with cams instead of perfect circles.

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Woodworkers never have enough clamps! This string is cool, because I am seeing some solutions I have never seen before. Keep up with the suggestions.

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