Masking Tape Clamp

Recently, I was building the Craftsman-style clock that was featured in the November 1999 issue of Workbench.

The long edges on the front and sides of this clock are mitered. So, the trick was trying to clamp up the clock without having the tips of the miters slip out of alignment. To prevent the pieces from sliding, I “clamped” the clock together with masking tape. (The tape also lets you adjust the fit of the miter joints.)

Start with the front and sides of the clock face up on your workbench. After you’ve carefully aligned the tips of the miters, tape the pieces together, leaving a space between each piece of tape.

The space will allow you to see whether the tips of the miters are aligned during glue-up (Fig. 1a).

After flipping the pieces over face down, put glue in the valley of the miters (Fig.1). Then flip up one side and use a small square to hold it in place (Fig.2). Now stand the second side up and tape across the two sides (see photo at top). To adjust the fit of the joint, loosen or tighten the tape.