Tip #11
Everything You Need To Know About Clamping
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version of Tip - Pg 1-3, Pg. 4-6, Pg. 7-9

Shop-Made Clamps

Sometimes, you need a specialized clamp that just isn't available in order to perform a unique holding task. In those cases, you may have to make it yourself. Here are a couple of examples of shop-made clamps that you can put together in about half an hour.

Holey Bar Clamp

The first is nothing more than a couple of strips of hardwood (we used hard maple) containing a series of 3/8" diameter holes. This is an excellent tool for clamping a stack of parts together, “sandwich-style”. Just use a couple of 3/8"-16 threaded rods, some fender washers, hex nuts and wing nuts to draw everything together. If you're planning to use a clamp like this to apply a great deal of pressure, you might consider making it out of steel bars or angle iron.

Slotted Bar Clamp

The second of our two shop-made clamps is a variation of the first, designed for more rapid assembly and disassembly. Instead of a series of holes, it offers a single position at each end. The bottom piece contains two 3/8"-16 Tee-Nuts, driven into shallow counterbores on the bottom side of a piece of hardwood (as before, we used hard maple). Once again we used two 3/8"-16 threaded rods with fender washers and wing nuts to apply the appropriate amount of clamping pressure. The slotted ends allow quick, simple attachment and removal of the clamp.

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