Glueing It All Up Part 3

Now that all my "rings" are flat and parallel its time to glue it up. These are the things you will need:

Adhesive
Cork Clamp
Mandrel
Rubber Gloves
Wooden Stick
Plastic Cup
Ruler
Newspaper
De Natured Alcohol (for cleanup)
Paper Towels

First measure out equal parts of your adhesive. Here I'm using 5ml each of Ultimate Epoxy. This adhesive gives you plenty of pot life so there is no panic or rush to get everything coated.Check out the measuring cup as you can see a colour change from the resin to the hardener.

Mix well through until the colour of the adhesive turns a uniform colour. I usually mix for 3 minutes.

Smear the glue with a wooden lolly stick on to the faces of your rings and slide up your mandrel one at a time. Use the stick to scrape the faces so the rings have just a "wet" look to them. You don't want excessive adhesive in between the rings or you will end up with visible glue lines. This is why I take my time making sure that each ring is flat and parallel. More glue doesn't make up for sloppy fitting parts.

Next clamp them all together using light pressure. There is no need to crank the nuts up. With a ruler measure the distances on each side of the clamp to make sure they are parallel. If the space on one side is greater than the other just tighten that side. I have put handles on my glue up mandrels so once the grip is clamped I can easily pull the mandrel out without disturbing the placement of the rings. These rings are bored to 8mm so I am using an 8mm mandrel. I have made several of these in different diameters. Some builders wax their mandrels so the grip can be turned and then "popped" of the mandrel. I found this to be a hassle so I like to pull the mandrel out.

Take some paper towels and wipe your clamp or anything else that has unwanted glue on it. The only thing left to do is just wait until the adhesive is cured.