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

On Jul 5, 12:03 pm, "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

You left off some pertinent information:

What are they to be used for?

Wood or metal?

Flat work or round work?

"C" clamps, handscrew, cabinet, "K" body, Jorgenson...

what are you looking for?

Robert

wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 5, 12:03 pm, "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

You left off some pertinent information:

What are they to be used for?

Wood or metal?

Yes.


Flat work or round work?

Yes.


"C" clamps, handscrew, cabinet, "K" body, Jorgenson...

Yes.


what are you looking for?

Refer to original post, "a wide variety" 75% woodworking 25% metal &
welding.
I already make jigs for multiple constructs.
Jamffer


Robert

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

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 17:02:00 -0400, "Ghamph"
wrote:


wrote in message
roups.com...
On Jul 5, 12:03 pm, "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

You left off some pertinent information:

What are they to be used for?

Wood or metal?

Yes.

Never made a metal clamp, but there are some good tricks for clamping
wood. One of my favorites, that gets used a lot, is using band clamps
for round work and picture frames. I'm sure you've seen them, and
probably own a few already- they're normally used to tie stuff down on
trailers or truck beds. The best ones at the ones where the end of
the strap slides into the ratchet to make a loop, as the ones with the
hooks on the end will marr your work. Especially for picture frames,
there's really nothing that works as well- you put the thing all the
way around the perimeter, and it not only holds it together while it
dries, but also sort of "auto-aligns" the corners. Works good for M&T
tables as well, where you just need some pressure, but the joints are
doing the alignment work for you.

Another favorite of mine is using wooden cams. The basic trick here
is to make a P shaped handle, then drill a 1/2" hole in the fat part,
slightly off-center. Then cut a slit in the end of the handle, so
that you can slide an eye bolt into the end, and put a pin through it.

The eye bolt treads into a threaded insert on the other side of the
"clamp", and when you push the handle down, it will act as a cam to
hold the work in place. If it is too tight or too loose, you just
spin the handle to adjust.

When you clamp long miters, you can set them point to point on a table
on a peice of tape, then glue, fold them together, and use a couple
more pieces of tape to hold it in place while the glue sets up-
doesn't sound like it'd be enough, but it works just fine.

Segmented turning rings can be glued up with rubber bands.

Far as the other stuff goes, I'd think your best bet would be to head
to the hardware store and look at the existing ones and go from there.
By my quick estimate, I don't know if you'll come out very far ahead
of just buying a number of pipe clamps and a selection of black pipe
by making them, but you never know.

My thinking is like that also, pipe clamps are simple to make, and
can be up-sized easily, larger pipes and fine threaded bold and nuts
make for real squeezers.
An another way, if you have the room for it, is going the opposite way
from pushing to pulling, a chain and turnbuckle, or straps, metal or
other and turnbuckle, and one can haul things really tight, a come-
along could be used also, it just depends on what one wants to do.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

/SNIP/ as the other stuff goes, I'd think your best bet would be to head
to the hardware store and look at the existing ones and go from there.
By my quick estimate, I don't know if you'll come out very far ahead
of just buying a number of pipe clamps and a selection of black pipe
by making them, but you never know./SNIP/