While building a wide sliding barn door, 1 didn’t have pipe clamps long enough to pull the rails and the stiles together. So I used the rails as clamps. First I cut the rail tenons about 8 in. longer than they needed to be. Then I ran the tenons into their mortises as far as they would go without clamping pressure and clamped blocks to their ends. Opposing wedges driven between the blocks and the stiles brought the door frame together.
Ed Good, Nordland, WA
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #74
