Red Oak and Walnut Zank V-Inlay

[gkas]

I haven't bothered putting a wood foot on the press. I just lay a piece of flattened 2x4 or a couple of other dense scrap on top of the inlay. It seems to work fine.

[dwilli9013]

Hey it's all about what gets you to the endgame. I tend to think of myself as the repurpose king. You should see some of the jigs and work arounds in my shop. Keep up the good work and adapt to suit your needs.

[Creation in Wood]

Great project

[Holzarbeiter]

Gary, would you mind posting a photo of the press you made? I usually use clamping cauls on my inlays. Never thought about a press for smaller stuff like this project. Great idea...thanks for sharing.


DOH!!! Never mind...just saw the post above....sheesh. I like it...gonna have to make me one of those!

[laflippin]

Gary, Thanks again for posting useful info & photo of the letter press clamp you built for your Zank inlay work. Thought I'd add a picture of my variation on the theme:

Bought the turn-screw from Amazon for ~$15 and mounted the collar "upside down" in a piece of 2x4. Bought a couple of 10" carriage bolts from the local hardware store and shaped the bolt-heads on a benchtop grinder so that they resemble the T-bolts found on typical CNC clamps and fit nicely into the T-slots of my CNC router bed. The turn-screw collar is "upside down" so that the collar flange pushes against the underside of the 2x4 as clamping pressure is applied--no danger of loosening or displacing the collar from the 2x4 in this configuration.

In case I don't happen to want to use the router bed as the base of this clamp, given the long glue-up times of Zank inlay projects, I also have a piece of particle board drilled appropriately to use as an alternate base for the letter press clamp.

This type of clamp is really cool for a number of reasons: (1) Can be adapted to large projects that require serious clamping pressure far from the edges of the workpiece and, 2) Different sized pieces of wood can be used on the screw-side clamp face to properly distribute clamping pressure to the workpiece. Choosing a screw-side clamp face to approximately match the dimensions of the male insert that is being glued in place is as easy as digging through the scrap box next to my band saw, or quickly cutting a custom one out of plywood or thick particle board on the band saw.

[ElevationCreations]

The letter press type clamp can exert alot of force, but are becoming more difficult to find.

We use the deep throat Harbor Freight C clamps with 1/2" HDPE blocks waxed and hardwood backing blocks between the piece and clamp, any dried excess glue pops right off the HDPE.

We want to try to make Cam Clamp Bases for some of our high production pieces so the pressure can be applied in the center of the inlays by lowering the arm and engaging the CAM.

[scottp55]

Thanks Gary and Lee!
Just ordered
Will probably do like Lee, but drill out holes in a sturdy work station, or maybe a small rolling work station I need to build anyways.
Thanks!!
scott

[Creation in Wood]

Love the work and the theme