This video just came up on my Instagram. She's talking about furniture but I wonder if this could be applied to building a block rim. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGDkjmDtJxZ/?igsh=MTMxdTlpOG12dmVlYw==
Sam Farris
She doesn't clamp. That's not good. But as far as justifying two halves, that's what Mark Hickler has been doing for years, and it works wonderfully. I've used many of his rims.
The fit must be near-perfect, but a rubbed joint can be a good glue joint. I use rubbed joints (hot hide glue) for mandolin top and back center seams because the wedge-shaped pieces of wood are so difficult to clamp evenly.
In the video it looks like she is gluing end grain to end grain, and clamping would not improve the joint much anyway. I've recently read that end grain glue joints are stronger than I have always believed, and that the fact that they fail in the glue line rather than in the wood (like side grain joints) is the main reason they are widely believed to be not very strong.
So anyway, block rims could be made the same way, but it wouldn't be too hard to devise a clamping fixture or two with the right equipment at hand. (I could also devise a fixture for mandolin tops/backs, but rubbed joints work just fine.)
I've been CNC routing rim segments with a tenon on each end and blind alignment holes for dowels. This has worked out great by giving really tight joints, making really efficient use of the wood, and is clamped for glue up with just a large hose clamp.
I then use a fixture to mount the glue up on the CNC and finish them.
Edited by - Cockrum_Studios on 05/01/2025 05:21:35
That's what I've been thinking for a cnc project. Now I've seen it done. Thanks Chris.
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