Any clamp making ideas?

I want to make a wide variety of clamps for 100 - 400+ lb. range from small to 5 ft. long and some deep set, without spending a fortune or using a fortune in oxygen with the welder.

Any ideas like pipe or band iron that anyone tried? Thanks before hand. Jamffer

Reply to
Ghamph
Loading thread data ...

You left off some pertinent information:

What are they to be used for?

Wood or metal?

Flat work or round work?

"C" clamps, handscrew, cabinet, "K" body, Jorgenson...

what are you looking for?

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Refer to original post, "a wide variety" 75% woodworking 25% metal & welding. I already make jigs for multiple constructs. Jamffer

Reply to
Ghamph

Just a few ideas of things that have worked for me in the past:

If you have access to metal banding (like you'd use to clamp soemthing to a pallet) you can get a lot of pressure, and they handle a wide range of sizes, particularly odd shapes, relatively well. If you start out with long project, the banding can also be reused on successively smaller ones for the cost of the metal clip that is crimped on. An alternative might be some aircraft cable and a come-along.

Another possibility is the use of a sturdy bench (mine are made from 9' sections of bowling alley) and bench dogs. Drill a hole wherever needed for a given length, and insert a bench dog and use the bench vise to apply pressure. An alternative (before the bench vise) was to weld a bench dog to a short section of pipe with a pipe clamp screwed on it for one end, and another bench dog in a hole in the benchtop for the other end.

You can do something similar by building a beam from a couple of 2x4 studs with relatively thin top and bottom facing (3/8"). A sliding jaw on one end and some sort of screw clamp (another modified pipe clamp) on the other and you have a fairly useable though somewhat unwieldy long clamp.

If you only have a couple of setups to do, place the project vertically on the shop floor (on a pad of plywood) and use a hydraulic jack and post to the rafters. Jack in pressure until the joint closes or you start lifting the rafters (don't go overboard on this one).

Following the jack thread, jack up the bumper of your truck, place the project underneath in the appropriate place, lower bimper onto project, providing clamping force you require. Appropriate sized spacer blocks can get you as much pressure as the back of the truck weighs, or what you can pile in the bead for ballast.

For things that can lay flat on concrete floor, use same idea as bench dogs, except drill holes in concrete to place pins to press against. (A variation of this is used at many autobody shops to straighten automobile frames)

Given a bit of time I'm sure you'll think of others...

--Rick

Reply to
Rick Frazier

Never made a metal clamp, but there are some good tricks for clamping wood. One of my favorites, that gets used a lot, is using band clamps for round work and picture frames. I'm sure you've seen them, and probably own a few already- they're normally used to tie stuff down on trailers or truck beds. The best ones at the ones where the end of the strap slides into the ratchet to make a loop, as the ones with the hooks on the end will marr your work. Especially for picture frames, there's really nothing that works as well- you put the thing all the way around the perimeter, and it not only holds it together while it dries, but also sort of "auto-aligns" the corners. Works good for M&T tables as well, where you just need some pressure, but the joints are doing the alignment work for you.

Another favorite of mine is using wooden cams. The basic trick here is to make a P shaped handle, then drill a 1/2" hole in the fat part, slightly off-center. Then cut a slit in the end of the handle, so that you can slide an eye bolt into the end, and put a pin through it.

The eye bolt treads into a threaded insert on the other side of the "clamp", and when you push the handle down, it will act as a cam to hold the work in place. If it is too tight or too loose, you just spin the handle to adjust.

When you clamp long miters, you can set them point to point on a table on a peice of tape, then glue, fold them together, and use a couple more pieces of tape to hold it in place while the glue sets up- doesn't sound like it'd be enough, but it works just fine.

Segmented turning rings can be glued up with rubber bands.

Far as the other stuff goes, I'd think your best bet would be to head to the hardware store and look at the existing ones and go from there. By my quick estimate, I don't know if you'll come out very far ahead of just buying a number of pipe clamps and a selection of black pipe by making them, but you never know.

Reply to
Prometheus

My thinking is like that also, pipe clamps are simple to make, and can be up-sized easily, larger pipes and fine threaded bold and nuts make for real squeezers. An another way, if you have the room for it, is going the opposite way from pushing to pulling, a chain and turnbuckle, or straps, metal or other and turnbuckle, and one can haul things really tight, a come- along could be used also, it just depends on what one wants to do.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Reply to
l.vanderloo

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.