Since I built my first chevalet back in 2011 I have redesigned the blade clamps at least three times, never getting one that I really liked on all levels. My constraints were lack of metal working tools and sticking to box store metal supplies. Then last winter I asked a friend who is a hobby metalworker to make me a set of clamps more like the ones that I remembered from ASFM. With his milling machine and lathe this wasn't too hard at all.

Fast forward to last month when I decided to try to copy them for my chevy here in Canada. I still had minimal metal working tools but went to a steel supplier and got bigger stock than the box stores carry. This gave me a better chance.

To try to make a long story a little shorter, my plan was to cut a piece of 3/4" bar at 1" and then cut away a piece to leave an "L" shape. I would then fill the "L" with a separate piece of flat bar and secure with a screw to make the blade clamp.

For the shanks I would round and thread the ends of a piece of 3/8" square bar and fit one end into a tapped hole in the "L" piece.

Here are some photos that should explain all of the above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These work just perfectly but require a lot of hand work and took almost a whole day to make. I'm too old to work that hard so …....... faced with the task of making four sets for the four new chevalets I'm making for my marquetry school I devised a "table saw" to do some of the work for me. It's really just a mini grinder with a cut off disc to which I have added a reference surface and a sled. It works like a hot (literally) damn.
You can see my project post of the saw here.

 

 

I cut all these pieces in about a half hour.

 

The rest will be about the same as the hand versions but this represents most of the hard work ….... done.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul