Ideas from my shop #1: Lap Clamps

April 1, 2008

No this isn’t an April fool joke.

I thought since the price of everything is getting so high, you’d enjoy seeing these clamps. I worked in a boat shop one summer and the standing joke was ”let’s sell all of these clamps and buy one of them thar plactic boats”.

We had buckets full of clamps. You need lots when planking. These are what we called “Lap” clamps. We used them when putting planks on a lap strake boat. They won’t crank up as tight as a Hand Screw but then you can make them so they reach pretty far. Even pieces of scrap 2 X 4 will work and I’ve seen several variations. Some with a piece of leather on the butt end to hold it together. Different shapes for different locations.

This is my design. The larger one has a piece of round stock that is drilled and tapped to accept the threaded rod: that allows it to pivot. The smaller ones just have the hole “wowed out” so the screw can move about. They are 1 1/2 thick and the bench rule will give you an idea of the size.

Yaaa I know there’s a nut and washer missing on the big one. I stole it for another project.
Weld a piece of flat stock to a square nut of the app. size and you won’t have to look for a wrench, you can spin ‘em faster and really crank ‘em up tight.