Expert: Jamie Yocono - 12/17/2008

Question
I am making a cabinet for my daughter to put her doll collection in. It is going to be 72 inches high by 42 inches wide. I am using cherry lumber that has aged about two and a half years. The shell of the cabinet is going to be about 12 inches wide, the shelves 10 inches so I need to glue two boards together to get the width. What kind of glue should I use? Do I want to just butt the boards together or should I use some other method? How many clamps or how far apart should the clamps be? How tight? Thank you for any advice you can give me!

Answer
Hi Eugene,

Gluing boards is one of the most fundamental procedures of woodworking, and your questions are good ones. I'll try to help.

There is a whole science to gluing boards together, especially if one if worried about cupping or bowing of the wood once it's glued into a larger panel. But for a simple shelf like the one you are making, it's pretty easy stuff.

When gluing boards like this together, you want to make sure you have two straight, clean edges that mate together. If they're slightly rough, that's fine. Rough edges will give the glue a little "tooth" to hang onto, and many woodworkers actually roughen up their edge slightly to make it glue better.

Yellow glue, like Titebond is fine. Even white glue would work in a pinch, like Elmer's white glue. But Titebond is better. Don't bother using Gorilla glue, it would be overkill in this situation.

If the boards are straight, with no cupping or bowing, you can simple glue them together, as is. If you need to align them, due to one of them being warped, you could use dowel pins, or biscuits. It depends on what you have available. But these would mostly help with alignment issues, not really adding strength to the joint.

When clamping, you want to put one clamp close to each end, like 2" or so from the end, and then spread more clamps about every 6-8" along the length. I'm just guessing, but if your self is around 40" wide, you'll need around 5 or 6 clamps. Some cabinetmakers rotate the clamps - one on top, one on bottom, and so on, so the glue joint gets equal pressure. I do that if it's critical, like a tabletop. But a shelf isn't really that critical, in my opinion.

Finally, make sure you don't tighten the clamps too tightly. If you do, you can squeeze too much of the glue out. This is called starving the joint, and the joint will be very weak from the lack of glue. When tightening the clamps, do it until you get a nice bead of glue along your joint, then stop. Your don't want the clamp too tight, nor too loose. The bead is the way to tell.  I have seen more than one strong person overdo it, and ruin their work! So be careful. If the boards fit together nicely, you should be fine.

OK, hope that helps, write back if you need more help.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com