Laminating the first apron

Today I unclamped the re-laminated benchtop, and it looks pretty good! Definitely a join where once there was a gap. So that’s a win. I spent some time planing down the benchtop to remove excess dried glue, and to reflatten now that the gap has closed.

Then I got back to work on the apron pieces. I got the joining edges to a point where I thought they were fitting quite well.

apron test fit — Final dry test fit of the joining edges

I set up the clamps on my saw horses and ran the glue. I think I used enough this time!

apron glue up close — Gluing up the apron

I put the edges together and rubbed them lengthwise to get the glue spread right across the joining surfaces, then evened up the ends and clamped. There was a good amount of glue coming from the join, so I think that’s a positive sign.

I deliberately set up my T-bar clamps with one on top and one below on the far ends of the lamination, with the pipe clamps evenly spaced across the middle. I continued tightening up the clamps over the next few minutes and then scraped off the excess glue and left the assembly to set.

apron lamination — Lamination glued and clamped

Lessons learned

None yet, but I suspect there will be some when I inspect the finished product of this next lamination.