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New Type Of Clamp


mattharris75

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I saw these on sale on Woodcraft's website several months ago and decided they'd be perfect for gluing up tops and whatnot. I like the idea of having a 4 way pressure clamp to provide alignment of the boards. The clamps come as kits and require that you rip some 2x4's and drill holes in them and assemble the clamps.

I used them for the first time tonight when gluing up the ash body blank for my new bass project. my impressions so far are that they seem to fairly effectively provide clamping pressure in each direction, but are a bit unwieldy when trying to get everything fit together and tightened before the glue begins to set. It's a good idea to have a second set of hands available to help.

Has anybody else tried these clamps? If not, i'll let everyone know how effective they really were once I pull them off the blank tomorrow night. I plan on using them to join my 5/16" thick spalted maple and burled redwood bottom and top plates as well, assuming this test run on the ash goes well.

*Edit* I do realize that the cranks are on the wrong side. I didn't realize it until I started tightening them down, then it dawned on me that I was completely brain dead. Nevertheless, they worked.

Gluingashblank1.jpg

Edited by mattharris75
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Yep, I posted about these around a year or so ago. They work pretty well. If you place a pair of spacer boards (thin slightly taller than the wood you are joiniing, on each side) in the clamps. Then place your wood after you have glued it (and of course placed the wax paper or whatever to prevent sticking), it will slide in easily. Then you simply pull the space board from each side and clamp away. You will have no need for extra hands :D .

Good luck,

Rich

Found the link-topic

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After gluing up a second blank with these clamps I can safely say that I really like them. I corrected my technique mistake (turned the cranks around so they were on the correct side) and was more comfortable working with them the second time around and managed to use them easily without a second set of hands for help. The blanks came out great, very well aligned, and I was able to easily get plenty of clamping pressure with them.

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If you are in the UK, Axminster stocks them here. I have used them for about 4 years and they can be awkward in getting the pieces in between the wood bars. Sometimes it feels like you need 3 pairs of hands.

What I do now is that I have a sheet of ply covered in pastic. I lay the glued up boards on that, and put it on the bench on spacers so there's room for the lower part of the clamp to fit under the ply. Much easier that way.

They are also good for gluing up doors - I had a production line going when I was fitting out my workshop, and could make a panelled door in well under half an hour. They are a great piece of kit.

Denis

PS And the Axminster ones are cheaper that Harbor Freight - that must be a first :D

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