good use for broken harbor freight bar clamps
I have two of these that worked fine until the fixed end snapped off. being a cheapskate i kept them around figuring they might be good for something. cleaning up yesterday i looked at them and an idea struck me: why not use them as holdfasts? here it is:
what remains should be plenty strong since it's better reinforced and doesnt have as much torque applied to it. the dud end stays in place and is held beneath the bench through 3/4" dog holes. the only other modification (other than breaking the original product) is to remove the rivet at the other end (vise grips to the rescue!). to use it you just remove the moving clamp, pass it up through the dog holes, and reaffix the clamp. to make it easier you could probably rig a swinging pin on the bottom (fixed end) so you could make it pass through the top.
I have two of these that worked fine until the fixed end snapped off. being a cheapskate i kept them around figuring they might be good for something. cleaning up yesterday i looked at them and an idea struck me: why not use them as holdfasts? here it is:
what remains should be plenty strong since it's better reinforced and doesnt have as much torque applied to it. the dud end stays in place and is held beneath the bench through 3/4" dog holes. the only other modification (other than breaking the original product) is to remove the rivet at the other end (vise grips to the rescue!). to use it you just remove the moving clamp, pass it up through the dog holes, and reaffix the clamp. to make it easier you could probably rig a swinging pin on the bottom (fixed end) so you could make it pass through the top.