Bass bar install using bamboo clamps

The bass bar fitting started off poorly when I decided to use the loose blue chalk I have (for a chalk line) for marking. It did not work at all for marking and it permanently stained the entire plate. Sigh. What was I thinking?













The bass bar came rather too tall, I thought, so I trimmed it down with the scraper. It fit the inside pretty well from the beginning however. There was a bit of spring in it. If I were making it from scratch I wouldn't put in spring, but whatever. The Lowes-blue spruce was making me a bit frazzled.



















I only have 2 C-clamps. Some forum post showed some clothespin style clamps but they needed to be made from a springy wood, which describes nothing I had on hand. I walked in and out of the garage knowing nothing was in there, when I noticed this bamboo stick propped up next to the door and splitting on the end. My kids like to poke things and shoot each other with it. Aha! I split the bamboo down to the joint and had three clamps in about 60 seconds. They worked perfectly.










Medium-strength hide glue worked fine. The cleats are MDF glued with weak Elmer's white glue onto paper onto the plate. Next time, I would use cleats again but attach them some other way, and obviously skip the stupid blue chalk dust.