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Bowed Cauls - Shop Made

"Busted"...:rofl:

Hi Guys :wave: Doing well..a bit crazy... Thanks. Hope all is well with you. 'Nuther new shop and some cool new toys. Might be time for an update.

Glad you guys are liking yours. Now how's about those action shots. :thumb:
 
Mike Henderson said:
I purchase some straight grain fir 2x4's. 48" fits a lot of panels so I cut an 8' in half to make two cauls. Around here, a fir 2x4 is about $3.

The only disadvantage is that you may have to let the 2x4 dry out for a while before you can use it.

Mike
Click to expand...

That is what I was going to say, I have seen several places on the web where they talk about that idea. From what I have heard, once you get the wood square, flat and stable, you can create the subtle curve with just a hand plane. Start the plane four inches from center and plane to the end of the board on both sides a couple of times. Then repeat from eight inches from center. That should create the curve you need.
 
Dwain Lambrigger said:
That is what I was going to say, I have seen several places on the web where they talk about that idea. From what I have heard, once you get the wood square, flat and stable, you can create the subtle curve with just a hand plane. Start the plane four inches from center and plane to the end of the board on both sides a couple of times. Then repeat from eight inches from center. That should create the curve you need.
Click to expand...
Here's a tutorial on how to make bowed cauls.

Mike
 
I made some of mine a little differently.

I had a bunch of 1 1/4" off rips from a hard maple job I did and they were all ripped with the grain. So I planed them to the thickness of the thinnest one, a hair less than 3/16. I had a bending form around from another project that was a 8' radius, so I clamped three strips glued with West System together and repeated till I ran out of strips.

I was going to make some thicker for wider glueups, but just decided that if I needed to glue up something wider I would just add layers of strips. These are 6' long bows, so if I am gluing up something wider, like a tabletop, I will use two strips on top of each other for more pressure in the middle.

I have done it both ways and each has its merits. These strips are much easier to handle when you are in a hurry to beat the glue setting as they are easier to clamp. Occasionally I will do a tabletop that ignores good wood practices so that it can have the pattern that the customer wants and so the pieces are set on a sheet of plywood as a core and held in place with epoxy. It does not take a lot of force with epoxy, in fact you do not want to squize it out too much as it is a mechanical bond and requires some glue. The bent laminated cauls work good for this and are fast when you have a lot of area to get clamped in a hurry.

Just another way to skin a cat......

The other Larry
 
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