Getting it together

You’ve done all the joinery, milled for connectors, and perhaps created tongues, mortises or dovetails. Now, all that’s left is to attach parts to each other. Having the right tools on hand can make the assembly process a whole lot easier, whether the shop is building cabinets, drawers or odd-shaped furniture. Given the limited open time of most glues, it pays to plan the assembly sequence and do a test fit. Once that’s done, having the right clamps on hand can change your whole day. And not having them can do that, too.

If you’ve ever had to cut a spacer block to clamp a jig to a drill press table, you know what ‘step-over’ clamping is. It lets you avoid those cast iron ribs under the table, and clamp something squarely to the flat part of the underside. Some new clamps from Bessy Tools North America (bessey.de/en-us) come with that spacer block included, but they also have another feature that’s almost indispensable in a one-man shop. The EZR clamps are one-hand operated. That lets a woodworker physically guide a cabinet part while drawing it into place, and the step-over adaptor can help work around face frames, toe-kicks and other obstacles. The adaptor can be removed and replaced as needed, and an EZR clamp is also a spreader in case a test fit is a bit too tight. Plus, the clamp’s sealed mechanism is protected from dust, and the jaws are a full 2-3/8” deep.

The double corner clamp from Woodstock International (item No. D4145, woodstockinternational.com) is another handy assembly tool. It has a quick-release feature that makes it incredibly helpful when help isn’t available. The device lets a single woodworker secure 90-degree and T-shaped assemblies quickly and securely, and a set of these clamps can make box-building almost pleasant. The D4145 can handle parts as thick as 2-3/8”, and Woodstock also makes the Shop Fox deep reach C-clamp (item No. D2804) that has a 1-1/2” clamping capacity and an extra deep 6” reach.

For small shops building one door at a time, the KCT Clamp Table from Kreg Tool (kregtool.com) offers a very affordable solution for keeping assemblies flat and square. It works with an entire family of system components including vises, tracks and clamps, and can be purchased with or without a leg set. Using the company’s Automaxx technology, the included clamps can automatically adjust to match various material thicknesses. The pressure can also be adjusted. A woodworker can clamp a 2x4 and then a piece of 1/2” plywood without ever readjusting the clamp. The table’s 21-3/4” x 33-3/4” worktop is made from glue-resistant melamine, and two tracks make it possible to position clamps or blocks anywhere along the table’s edges.

Doucet (doucetinc.com) offers various clamp models for door and drawer assembly in both small and high-volume shops. There’s a drawer assembly clamp (model DWM) that ensures squareness and occupies a very small footprint, and a whole range of devices for clamping cope and stick, mortise and tenon, and mitered assemblies. They range from the one-door-at-a-time SDM unit that’s ideal for everything from small drawer fronts to large pantry doors, to the massive RDM units for mitered or mortised doors in a production environment.

ExFactory (exfactory.com) maintains a significant inventory of both new and used manual and automatic clamp carriers for door and parts assembly. There’s an impressive array of larger Quick models that include control panels, fully automated hydraulic clamps with adjustable torque limiters, pneumatic panel flatteners, and automated rotation.

Sjöberg (sjobergs.se/en) makes a large variety of workbenches for project assembly, and they are distributed by a number of respected outlets such as McFeeleys (mcfeeleys.com), Rockler (rockler.com), and some of the big box stores.

Bora (boratool.com) makes the innovative Centipede collapsible workbench in a variety of sizes and shapes.

The biggest challenge in assembling components is to keep everything flat and square while pressure is being applied.

JLT Clamps (jamesltaylor.com) provides a large selection of tables for assembling face frames, panels, stile and rail doors, mitered frames, drawers, and even large entry doors. One of the more popular solutions for smaller shops is the JTL Buddy clamping system that comes in both 8’ and 12’ wide platforms, where more than one door can be assembled at the same time.

Stiles Machinery (stilesmachinery.com) sells assembly tables that are made by Arizona-based Unique Machine & Tool Co. These allow a shop to quickly assemble and squarely clamp subassemblies such as coped or mitered 5-part doors, or drawer boxes. The tables are essentially galvanized steel grids that host moveable pneumatic clamps, and controls that keep things square as the clamps apply pressure when activated by a foot pedal. They hold the work almost vertically, so gravity helps during assembly. There’s a wide range of table sizes and they can be set up to assemble multiple doors simultaneously.

The FP Frame Press from Soukup America (soukupamerica.com) is a heavy-duty, electrically powered hydraulic unit for assembling and gluing windows, doors, and other components with either open or closed tenon joints. The press has vertical and horizontal clamping beams that hold hydraulic pistons, and a ball-bearing movement that delivers rapid positioning with lever locking pins. The press can handle large or very small frames, non-rectangular frames, solid wood panels, and laminated small parts.

For creating square cabinets, Homag (homag.com) offers three case clamping options, the Cabteq S-200, S-250 and T-200. The entry-level S-200 is a rugged, precise device that handles assemblies up to 55” x 98”, and 27-1/2” (700mm) deep. The two-speed clamp moves into position quickly and applies pressure slowly. It doesn’t eat much floor space and is relatively simple to operate. The pressure can be adjusted at the touch of a button, and the force is uniform throughout. There’s an optional sliding workbench at the front that lets a woodworker pre-assemble at the same height as the press, and then slide the cabinet into the machine. The family of Cabteq presses lets a shop choose whether to install anything from one simple case clamp to a customized assembly line.

The Cosmo from Biesse America (biesse.com) is billed by the manufacturer as a “plug-and-play solution” where all the shop needs to add is electricity. After placing a workpiece on the self-adjusting electromechanical clamp, the vertical and horizontal presses move toward the item and clamp it for the programed length of time. The clamps move along strong trapezoidal screws and are driven by asynchronous motors that develop a pressing force of up to 12,000 N without using compressed air. (Force is measured in newtons, where 1 lb. equals 4.45 N.) The vertical and horizontal pressure in the Cosmo can be independently adjusted.

Martin Woodworking (martin-usa.com) carries the Barth series of multi-presses, including the bestselling RP model that has a frame made of thick-walled, hollow section, powder-coated steel tubing that is bolted together. It has manual hydraulics with a stroke of 100mm (just under 4”), and the three pressing units are easily movable on ball-bearings.

JKL Machinery (jklmachinery.com) carries two Bonacin clamping machines, the Closer 2500 feed-through and the Nina 2500. The Closer has a conveyor and after a woodworker places a cabinet on the belt, it is fed into the machine. When the cycle is complete, the clamps automatically open and the cabinet is ejected via the conveyor. The Nina offers both manual and automated control options.

Castle (castleusa.com) makes a pair of assembly tables that measure 4’ x 8’ and 4’ x 12’ respectively. The smaller table has a clamping arm that glides along an open beam, and that allows larger face frames to extend beyond the top of the table. The quick clamps have dual handles and centered activation, which makes for easy clamping left or right, and an open back increases the tables’ work area for oversize frames without taking up extra shop space.

For smaller assemblies such as drawers and pull-outs, the hardware manufacturer Blum (blum.com) makes a series of devices called Boxfix that are specific to its own drawer components. The Boxfix P is a pneumatic clamp that is designed for assembling both LegraBox and TandemBox drawers. Boxfix E-L is a manual device for LegraBox component assembly, while Boxfit E-T does the same for Tandembox.

The Omec ICA600 from Macoser (macoser.com) is an automatic drawer gluing and assembly station that is designed to increase speed and reduce manpower. It applies consistent adhesive on each pin or pocket, eliminating messy clean-up, waste and poor glue joints. The operator loads the hopper and the machine glues both parts and conveys them to the out-feed. The components and the gluer then sit idle until the pieces are removed by the operator. Once the piece is removed, the machine runs the cycle again, keeping parts ready for assembly. The entire setup includes loading the hopper, entering data into the touchscreen, adjusting the outer fences, and then aiming the glue guns. The machine determines glue placement and quantity for the right amount every time. And the machine’s memory offers the ability to store a glue pattern including the quantity released, distance apart and overall product width.

Hermance Machine Co. (hermance.com) carries a large line of case clamps, door clamps, face clamps, clamp carriers, and drawer clamps. The most affordable option among door clamps is the Doucet SDM, a device that lets a woodworker assemble a single door at a time, including units up to the size of large pantry doors. It comes with three clamps and a pedestal for height adjustment. At the other end of the scale is the Ritter R250E/A, which is more of a system than just an assembly table. The work surface is a full 6’ x 12’ and there are five separate cylinder clamp arms, with 10 total cylinders. Ritter (rittermachinery.com) also offers face frame tables.

And for shops looking at a completely automated assembly system, SCM Group (scmgroup.com) offers the Action M and Action H machines that can process items such as windows and cabinet doors with no manual action required to position the pieces. On the M model, perfect parallelism when assembling shutters, solid wood doors and hollow frames is guaranteed by a rack-and-pinion synchronized system and a torsion bar. The much larger H model is intended for high-volume producers of cabinet and furniture doors, especially shops with frequent product size changing.

When it comes to assembly equipment and tools, it’s all about volume. Small manual systems and individual clamps may be all a smaller shop needs, but it’s nice to know that there are solutions available at every volume level as a shop’s needs grow over time. There’s no pressure (ugh!) to upgrade, and only opportunities to do so.  

This article was originally published in the May 2023 issue.