The art of gluing up

This is a post for all the woodworking geeks out there!!

The are so many things you start to take for granted once you have practised them many times. One of which is gluing up. There are so many small things which can go wrong. The picture above shows the posh clamps which we now use for gluing up panels. They are really good at keeping the panels flat which can be a problem with traditional sash clamps.

We also have a certain way that we machine the edges before gluing to insure that even if the machine is slightly off the square the boards will still lie flat together.

Biscuit joints are also used to help increase strength but mostly to line up the boards so there are no steps which saves time when sanding the board afterwards. To increase gluing speed you can use a glue pot with a special end that fits into the biscuit slot saving a lot of time.

All that detail from a boring picture of panels gluing!!!!!!!

Playing with nature

sandwick school's driftwood log, a photo by Paparwark on Flickr.

This large tree trunk was washed ashore near to Mousa broch. It was moved by boat and crane to the local school. After lying for several years the outside was starting to rot in places. The school commissioned us to turn it into a suitable log for the children to play on. The big kids got to play first as we were able to use our sculpting tools which is always a lot of fun!!