clamping large pannels

[feetup]

I have some 1/2" teak faced pannels that are tabbed in in such a way that it would be a pain to remove and re-tab. The veneer and top ply have been badly damaged, but the plywood is otherwise sound. It looks like something large and sharp has come adrift and pounded the pannels. My plan is to strip away 1/4" of the surface with router and planer and laminate a sheet of 1/4" teak faced ply to restore without removing. They are only tabbed on the back side, so the face is clear of obstruction but I am looking for a way to clamp up the new facing while the glue sets up. I thought of vacuume bagging but I can only get to one face, so it could be a pain.
Any ideas on how to clamp up a large surface? There are three pannels to do, one is 12" X 96" and the other two are about 12 X 36 each. Fortunately the pannels face each other across about a 30" space, and are right at the sole, so I could posibly rig some kind of jack screws between them.
Also, I am vascilating between Epoxy and Urethane glue. I think the urethane might be a bit more forgiving of less than perfect clamping.

Any body done something like this before?

Tim (FEETUP)

[Tim]

It sounds like basic braces or jacks between your panels would work just fine. If you need to spread the bearing area over a wider area, just use some boards or what have you at the ends of your braces.

If you can hide screws, or don't mind (or even like) bunged screw holes, then you can always hold the panels in place with screws.

As to adhesives, thickened epoxy is an excellent gap filler, but it doesn't sound as if you will probably have too much problem getting decent clamping pressure.

[Hirilondë]

I had badly stained bulkheads with lots of screw holes. The surface was too badly checked to just use veneer. I didn't have the delam problem you have. My interior is mahogany, so I bought 3mm okoume (1/8" app.) I glued it over my existing bulkeads, and held it back to just overlapping the tabbing. I used slightly thickened epoxy painted onto both surfaces. I used braces as Tim describes. I also used brads driven through 2" squares of scraps of ply then into the new skin and into the bulkhead. When the epoxy cured I pryed of the squares, pulled the brads and filled the holes. I used these brads mostly in spots I found after bracing that weren't as I liked it. The clamping/bracing/tacking scheme is the tricky part, especially with all that goo painted on the piece and the bulkhead. Try dry fitting and setting up the braces before you mix the epoxy. The trial will be a learning curve best experienced without goo.



I don't have any pictures of the spider web of braces or the patterns.