Clamping & Pinning Order

Shayla

WOW Framer
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Posts
35,332
Location
Washington State
When you clamp and underpin frames, which do you do first?

We clamp with glue until dry, then pin. Just saw a post from someone who does the reverse.
 
I do what you do, Shaya. It works best with my SER strap clamps. But, in dealing with some warpage issues gluing and underpinning particular corners first can help with alignment of the rest before clamping the whole frame. Max's method may work better with his Bessey clamps. I have no doubt about his craftsmanship with the rare joins that I have gotten from him. His reasonable free chop shipping minimum makes me buy chops for almost all orders.
 
WE underpin each corner and manipulate the joint till its perfect, after doing this to each corner we then clamp them to close any opening. this usually gives us the closest joint to closed corner finished frame.
 
Thank you both for posting. Part of why I raised the question is that a truly excellent frame maker mentioned it. Just didn't want to presume, so made and anonymous reference. I love finding out the different ways framers work, and others can please feel free to share what they do.
 
It only makes sense to glue them up in a vise allowing you to get them set at the same height and a tight corner edge. Once it has set up for about 15 minutes , THEN I underpin it.
 
I usually glue and then underpin. I like to give the joint hours to set up.
This is the way I get the best corners.

Any true production facility would underpin and glue at the same time. But then they have $20,000 saws and $10,000 underpinners and a person who might make 100+ frames per day.
 
I usually glue and then underpin. I like to give the joint hours to set up.
This is the way I get the best corners.

Any true production facility would underpin and glue at the same time. But then they have $20,000 saws and $10,000 underpinners and a person who might make 100+ frames per day.
More like $10,000 saws and $20,000 underpinners, but yeah, pinning and gluing at the same time really helps the flow of work.
 
I glue, let dry, then vnail. Works for me. Tried the glue and nail at same time but never was good for me. I keep getting
glue on my nailer. Guess I could have cut back on the amount of glue.:shrug:
 
with some hand issues, and "cheaper equipment" I glue and vise, then underpin. Also this doesn't give me glue seep issues on the underpinner!
 
Theoretically you should be able to underpin wet glue joints with good results on most profiles. No clamping needed. The v-nails are designed to pull the joint together, and serve as the de-facto clamp while the glue dries.
That said I use the v-nail sparingly and do most joining with the Hoffmann which is a single step glue and join process.
 
Very few profiles to I clamp. I glue and underpin and my corners are tight as can be. I have a Hoffmann that I have never used - don't know how and haven't had the time to learn. I will have to get on it when I get a little bit slower, just been way to busy to try to take the time to learn.
 
I have a Hoffmann that I have never used - don't know how and haven't had the time to learn. I will have to get on it when I get a little bit slower, just been way to busy to try to take the time to learn.

Being TOO BUSY isn’t a bad thing is it.
 
My workflow is:
1- chop all frames for that day into legs
2- glue and immediately join with underpinner
3- Sometimes vnails don't make for a perfectly tight join, so clamp those with a band clamp (or corner clamps if really large frame.)
Especially hardwoods with sloped profiles (I'm looking at you LJ Wren profile 429144 :icon45: )
I have had good results gluing and clamping (and fully dried) before nailing, with frames I know can be challenging in the underpinner.

My problem is that my cutting/joining shop is at a different location than my finishing/showroom/storefront. (Both of which are very small.)
I only have one day a week to cut all the frame jobs taken in the previous week. So don't have the time (or space) for waiting for a number of frames to be chopped, glued, clamped, glue dry, then join.
 
1. Chop.
2. Glue and Vise.
3. Underpin.

At a previous job, I used to skip the vise, but I found that my corners weren't as tight on small frames (1/2").
I also noticed that some corners didn't hold after the underpin, and I'd have to put a vise on every corner. This would use all of my vises, so I'd have to wait for them all to set before nailing more corners.
I also hated cleaning up the glue that got on and in the underpinner.
This was in a woodshop outside of the store where we finished the frame job.

Now I have all of the equipment in the store, and can let corners set while I fit a different project.

Brian
 
Back
Top