WOODWORKING SHOP TIPS

Have you ever opened up your shop in the morning and found the two pieces of wood you glued up the night before are now forever joined together but not in the same position that you left them? The slippery glue and uneven clamp pressure often causes the parts to move. Antonio Stradivarius grew tired of fiddling around with this problem and solved it by clamping the violin top and rib pieces together dry, then drilling a few small (1/16”) holes thru the front and just into the back wood. After applying glue he’d push a short length of dowel into each hole before clamping. The pinned-together parts would not move while the glue dried. Any dowel protrusion is simply planed flush before finishing. The next time you have your Stradivarious out of the case, look around the edges and you’ll see Tony’s little pegs.

Wayne Russert

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