Shopsmith Forums

Has anyone bought these? http://www.ptreeusa.com/edirect_040116_4way.htm
What do you think of them? Since you provide your on wood, you can make them different lengths, but they look pretty adjustable so you should only need one set of boards for most projects.

I have not used these so this is NOT a tool review. However, they look as though they would be very helpful/useful in doing edge glue ups. They also will store one heck of a lot easier than the ones I have.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfliqRH3G6c[/youtube]

rpd wrote:[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfliqRH3G6c[/youtube]

These very closely resemble the Shopsmith clamps. Not an invention but a good and inexpensive knockoff.

I have the Shopsmith version. They are very high quality, and work great. But the price on the ones from ptree is certainly attractive.

Functionally they look almost the same, but I see one difference that could be important. The Shopsmith bars are slightly convex, lengthways, on the side that presses on the glueup. This provides good caul pressure in the middle of the panel. If you use straight-edged cauls as shown in the ptree photos, you'll get little to no caul pressure in the middle of the panel (despite their claims to the contrary).

But since you make your own bars with that system, you can put in as much curve as you wish. Getting a nice even radius on them might be a challenge, though. I'm not real sure how you would do that, short of rigging up a circle cutter with maybe a 50 ft. radius. Perhaps make both a male and a female pattern, and then refine the curves while gauging them against one another?

BuckeyeDennis wrote:I have the Shopsmith version. They are very high quality, and work great. But the price on the ones from ptree is certainly attractive.

Functionally they look almost the same, but I see one difference that could be important. The Shopsmith bars are slightly convex, lengthways, on the side that presses on the glueup. This provides good caul pressure in the middle of the panel. If you use straight-edged cauls as shown in the ptree photos, you'll get little to no caul pressure in the middle of the panel (despite their claims to the contrary).

But since you make your own bars with that system, you can put in as much curve as you wish. Getting a nice even radius on them might be a challenge, though. I'm not real sure how you would do that, short of rigging up a circle cutter with maybe a 50 ft. radius. Perhaps make both a male and a female pattern, and then refine the curves while gauging them against one another?

I have made cauls with my jointer. Not sure why you would need a "radius". As long as it tapers from middle to end I would think they would work fine. By the way, I ordered some of these, so I'll try to post my thoughts after I get a chance to use them.