Old timer at a shop in Nashville told me I was wrong about clamping pressure after 8 years of building cabinets

I was at a lumber yard in Nashville last fall picking up some maple for a job. This guy, probably 70 years old, saw me loading clamps into my truck and asked what I was working on. I told him about a kitchen remodel I had going and how I always crank clamps down as hard as I can to get tight joints. He laughed and said I was actually making my joints weaker by forcing all the glue out. I didn't believe him at first but he walked me over to his truck and showed me a box joint sample he had where he barely tightened the clamps. The glue line was still visible and the joint was solid. I tried his method on my next run of drawer boxes and honestly my gaps got way smaller. Has anyone else had some old school guy change how you think about the basics?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayes.joel1mo ago

People get way too hung up on clamping pressure like it's some deep mystery.

stella_lane1mo ago

I read a guy on another forum who tested clamping pressure with a torque wrench on different vises and found most people crank way past what's actually needed. He did a bunch of tests on 5 inch vises and 6 inch vises and got the same results every time. Basically once you go past like 30 foot-pounds the wood just starts crushing and you don't get any more holding strength. So all that muscle power people put into tightening clamps is just wasted effort and can even mess up your project. I bet most of us could back off our clamps by half and still have plenty of grip for glue ups. Its wild how much we overthink this stuff when the research is pretty clear.

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