Edge Band Clamps
You may have seen edge banding clamps before. Usually they look like a spring clamp, but with a rubber band in the middle. That band puts pressure on the edge banding so that it’s pressed firmly against your plywood panel. The downside of those is that they only apply pressure where that rubber band is located. Today’s project fixes that. I built some shop made edge banding clamps! These are awesome because they apply pressure across the entire surface of the clamp. Plus, they only take a few minutes to make. I didn’t invent these. I first saw them on Woodsmith Shop, but they may be in other places too. If you are going to do shop made edge banding, give these clamps a shot.
Construction
These clamps do not need to be a specific size. I would recommend that they be thicker than 3/4” because that’s the typical thickness of plywood. The length of the block is up to you. I made mine approximately six inches long and three inches wide. This is a project that’s easy to batch out so cut at many blocks as you want clamps. Using a drill press or handheld drill, drill a hole approximately 4/5th down the length of the block. I drilled a hole around 1/8” in diameter. The size of the hole just needs to be wider than the kerf that you will cut in the next step so it’s okay if you want to make a hole slightly bigger or smaller than I did.
At the bandsaw, or by using a handsaw, slice the block from the end to the hole that you drilled. Don’t cut beyond the hole. The relief hole allows you to drive a wedge into this kerf without splitting the block. A bandsaw blade is usually cuts about a 1/16” thick kerf. Now, you need wedges to fit into the kerf that you just cut. I used some scrap wood to make some thin wedges. They don’t have to be very big. I would recommend that they are longer than the length of the slice that you cut.
To hold the block onto your plywood panel, you will need to cut a notch to hold a F-style clamp. The brand and size of the clamp really isn’t important. Cheap clamps work great for this! At the midpoint of the block, cut a notch using the table saw or hand saw so that the bar of your clamp fits inside it. Make the notch as deep as your like. Just make sure that the clamp can reach past the block so it can clamp onto the plywood.
You can now put your new clamps to work. Push your clamping block against your edge banding and tighten the F-style clamp. The edge banding may still wiggle if you touch it. Now, tap your wedge into the kerf of your clamping block. The wedge will push open the wooden block and apply a lot of pressure against the edge banding. People often use blue tape or spring clamps with a rubber band on them. But with these blocks, you will get much more clamping pressure across the entire surface of the edge banding, in turn, getting much better results!
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