Clamping Squares

If I was a superhero, my weakness would be glueups. Thankfully, those aren't really needed in the crime fighting business ... yet.

Maybe I don't plan ahead. Maybe I'm too impatient and just desire instant gratification. Maybe I'm just not that good at woodworking. I'm not sure, but tons of people are really bad at driving and they just keep doing it.

I'm making some games for Holiday gifts and they all have mitered sides. I have a shop made clamping jig for picture frames, but it isn't good for taller sides like these. I tried a band clamp, but there was some sliding. I moved up to some pin nails, but there was still some racking. I want this thing as square as possible (I know it won't be 100% square because life taunts me).

To the scrap bin!!

I have a bucket of corner cut offs ... left over from a project which required discs. The dics were cut from plywood squares, so these corners are already square. I also checked them to make sure.

I need holes large enough for my clamps and far away from each other to give room for afore mentioned clamps. For me, this was 3" from each squared corner and then 1 1/8" in from the edge to intersect that mark.

I made my holes 1 1/2" with a forstner bit.

Put your square in the corner and add your clamps. The only thing left is to smack yourself in the head for not making a stack of these years ago (my head still hurts).

Using a temporary stop block on my miter saw, I trimmed the square side lengths to be even and then trimmed the front straight. All cosmetic.

Lastly, as suggested by a member of the community (good call dimtick), I nipped off the back corner to allow for any glue squeeze out, which would otherwise make these blocks part of your project. Non-Super Hero Teamwork!