I’m sure most of you know about these, but for those that don’t, I’d like to show you my latest shop project. I find these brass clamps are very handy when you make small projects like I do. The problem is I wanted more, but they are a little pricey and more important they can take up to a month to get here. I never searched to see if these have been made by any one here before, so this might be old news.
I decided to make one and see if it might work. The results are fantastic. These are lighter than the brass ones I own and they have enough clamping pressure for many of the glue ups I do. They will clamp hard enough to hurt your finger. Also they don’t slide like the brass ones can even when locked down.
I ended up using oak for some and even the keys from the piano I’ve been recycling for some of the components. The keys are light and soft wood, but I used CA glue to harden the areas I needed to thread.
These operate just like the brass ones do. I used hot glue to adhere a bolt to the plastic cap. After drilling the hole for the top of the clamp I used my drill with a 1/4x20 all thread and wax to cut/add the threads.
The top piece of the clamp is glued and wedged in place. The next section just slides up and down with no adjustment.
The bottom section has a clamping mechanism that can be placed anywhere on the bar. I used a screw and ground away most of the head. This was threaded through the wood, the head was recessed and glued in with CA glue.
I’ll let you know if they work out long term, so far I like ‘em.
