Glen-L.com

Hello all,

I thought those of you well on your way or into your second boat might pass along your thoughts on which type of clamp you think best suits our boat building needs. I will be working on a squirt.

Thanks.

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Don't wait and see where life takes you, take the wheel and decide for yourself!

Uhh......all of them. In as many sizes and configurations as you can think. Not trying to be sarcastic, but I run out of clamps often, and I have well over 75 all told (spring, bar, ratchet).

too many clamps is definitely an oxymoron... like jumbo shrimp, astronomically small, and my personal favourite, airline food.

For me, it's springs and hand screws. A few cheap ¾" pipe clamps are always a help.

Go peruse the VanDam site and you'll see that they must own stock in the clamp companies. And they use anything and EVERYTHING to hold wood in place. There is no such thing as a wrong clamp or a right one. If it holds the work where it's supposed to, it's the right one for the job. Even PVC pipe can be cut and made into clamps. There was a thread dealing with this a few years ago before some hackers got in and crashed us. Now I can't find the links but I've certainly seen these things used with great success.

Anyway, you can see the concept at this tool tip site where they talk about building ukeleles:

http://www.hanalima.com/tooltips_pvcclamp.shtml

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Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

I've made, used and LOST lots of little clamps made from PVC pipe. You can make your own custom clamps from scrap PVC pipe quite easily. Just cut the pipe in 1-2 inch lengths. Cut the O into a C with a single cut. This type of clamp is best for low pressue and fairly small thicknesses in the material you are clamping. The smaller sizes of pipe can often provide a little more pressure, but also give you lots less clamping distance. One nice thing about them is they are simple to operate and dirt cheap (especially if it is left-overs from some other project).

And I would imagine that you could just use a thicker slice to get more tension. That stuff is tougher than you think ! And If anyone wants to send me your mailing address I will send you a bag for CHristmas !!
Do you know how much of that stuff I throw out each week?

Steve

Like this, eh?
http://www.instructables.com/id/E2C6TKRIQCET9K4ZP0/

Once when the DA was in a cleaning mood she threw out all my pvc clamps... for shame! Cost a whole 5$ to make about 50 more. But don't get them too close to the IR heat lamps. The fumes definitely constitute a WMD when they begin to burn. (don't ask how I found that out. It's right in there with the day I learned to check the speed before stirring paint with a drill press. )

Okay, hate to split hairs here....but I AM a plumber...those clamps are ABS....ABS has a more "elastic" feel to it, less tension, more pliable. But you are right, that is what I was thinking !

Steve

PVC, ABS... you need to put this into engineer language for me.

white ones and black ones

Ah, Oh mighty deer antler master, I too tried the high speed drill in the paint trick and probably with similar results !

Yeah and I dont even know the latin names for the abs and pvc !!!

Okay...back to tools !

Steve

Thanks for the thoughts!

And you all think these will be strong enough to be helpfull on boat building?

A whole lot cheaper than going out and buying new and used C claps.

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Don't wait and see where life takes you, take the wheel and decide for yourself!

Strength is necessary in SOME clamping operations but simple "PRESSURE" is required in others. People on the list have often
noted the ability to "starve" a joint by OVER-clamping. C-clamps can
obviously do that, as can many other clamps, but some of the PVC type clamps simply hold parts in position so they can cure and set properly. It would seem that good clamps would be required when trying to spring sheers etc...but when actually "gluing" parts firm pressure is better.
Steve

You KNOW how I hate to give Steve credit. But, he's right. It always seems the clamp you need, is the one you don't have.

Bill

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Mini -Tug, KH Tahoe 19 & Bartender 24 - There can be no miracle recoveries without first screwing up.
Tahoe 19 Build

Here's my recipe for "drainpipe clamps"...

I chop saw the pipe into 1" "steaks" (messy business), then split them to the "C" shape.

I agree with Steve about the perils of too much pressure starving a joint, but where a sinlgle drainpipe clamp is too wimpy, it is easy to double, triple, or even quad them up to give them more bite.

The second shot in this album has a picture of part of my "fleet" of them helping to scarf my sheer lams..

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=19l5ethz.pgc5p3f&Uy=he4tgz&Ux=1

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Bruce.

~~ Do what you love, and love what you do. ~~
~~ To me - only my boat is not yet perfect. Everybody else's is to be admired for I know the path they have walked (Dave Lott, 2010) ~~
Dow's Monaco Project

Another handy thing to have around is a length of shock cord, it can be wrapped around all sorts of awkward shapes to apply clamping pressure, just be sure you don't actually glue it to the boat!

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Graham in Shepperton, England

Good, Quick, Cheap, pick any two.