Ghamph wrote:

I want to make a wide variety of clamps for 100 - 400+ lb. range from small
to 5 ft. long and some deep set, without spending a fortune or using a
fortune in oxygen with the welder.

Any ideas like pipe or band iron that anyone tried?
Thanks before hand.
Jamffer


Just a few ideas of things that have worked for me in the past:

If you have access to metal banding (like you'd use to clamp soemthing
to a pallet) you can get a lot of pressure, and they handle a wide range
of sizes, particularly odd shapes, relatively well. If you start out
with long project, the banding can also be reused on successively
smaller ones for the cost of the metal clip that is crimped on. An
alternative might be some aircraft cable and a come-along.

Another possibility is the use of a sturdy bench (mine are made from 9'
sections of bowling alley) and bench dogs. Drill a hole wherever needed
for a given length, and insert a bench dog and use the bench vise to
apply pressure. An alternative (before the bench vise) was to weld a
bench dog to a short section of pipe with a pipe clamp screwed on it for
one end, and another bench dog in a hole in the benchtop for the other end.

You can do something similar by building a beam from a couple of 2x4
studs with relatively thin top and bottom facing (3/8"). A sliding jaw
on one end and some sort of screw clamp (another modified pipe clamp) on
the other and you have a fairly useable though somewhat unwieldy long clamp.

If you only have a couple of setups to do, place the project vertically
on the shop floor (on a pad of plywood) and use a hydraulic jack and
post to the rafters. Jack in pressure until the joint closes or you
start lifting the rafters (don't go overboard on this one).

Following the jack thread, jack up the bumper of your truck, place the
project underneath in the appropriate place, lower bimper onto project,
providing clamping force you require. Appropriate sized spacer blocks
can get you as much pressure as the back of the truck weighs, or what
you can pile in the bead for ballast.

For things that can lay flat on concrete floor, use same idea as bench
dogs, except drill holes in concrete to place pins to press against. (A
variation of this is used at many autobody shops to straighten
automobile frames)

Given a bit of time I'm sure you'll think of others...

--Rick