Poor Man's Clamps

Outstanding! I enjoy when some else goes “Mad Scientist” Doesn’t make me look soo much like one!!! :-)

-- Once in a man's life you should have a good dog, a good horse and a good woman. The trick is to get them all together at the same time

Poor man’s clamps? I prefer: Resourceful craftsman’s pressure appliances. Good job.

-- "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The point is to bring them the real facts." - Abraham Lincoln

This is great.As a person just starting out and trying to obtain all the different tools&accessories, one thing that drives me nuts is how expensive clamps are&how u never seem to have enough or the right sizes.This is a smart solution.

I’m in the same boat. If I can help you in any way with this, feel free to message me.

I am in that boat too, and have been meaning to make some clamps and a box clamping station that boxguy suggested. That being said, for any LJers up north, Busy Bee Tools sells decent clamps super cheap. I just got 4 16 inch clamps for 20 and change. They are not Bessys, but for boxes and small furniture they work just fine.

Very nice work on these! Keep it up!

-- The Box Whisperer

saving this one for a free weekend.

-- "Some get spiritual 'cause they see the light, and some 'cause they feel the heat." --Ray Wiley Hubbard

Cool. I keep cussing my cheap bar clamps that won’t hold…

Nice, I love home made clamps.

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

I started making my clamps a loong time ago. Just like everything else in this hobby, prices are just absurd for what you get in clamps.

By the way … Harbor Freight for the win on bar clamps and c-clamps. You can’t clamp them down like you can, say an Irwin clamp. But they are more than sufficient for 90% of your needs, since you can over-clamp anyway.

The video was well done; not too much detail, several nice homebrew jigs and Bob’s your uncle.
I like the two centerfinders he made and quickly demonstrated in the video.
Thanks for posting the link and your clamps.

-- Gary, Florida. http://www.penturners.org/forum/f70/servicepens-2013-a-98908/

Zinderin, I bought some HF clamps when I first started doing this. I made the mistake of cranking down on them too much and they both broke. To my surprise, HF replaced them – no questions asked.

Gary, I made the centerfinder as well. I’m constantly amazed at how ingenious people are. I see some of the most fascinating projects on here, YouTube, and Woodgears, among others. I can’t get over how inventive people are. I love it!

Thank you all for your comments!

Outstanding. your never a poor man when you can create, to serve you needs.

-- Marty Ohio

Great job! Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.

A while back, I had to laminate a beam for my house and didn’t have the clamps necessary for such a massive job. While reading one of my bench building books, I happened across and idea for some homemade clamps that would do just the trick. Check out my Laminated Post and Beam project picks for more info. The 5th image shows my post while I was in the process of removing the clamps and as well as the spacer “tongue” for its grove.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/81154

-- Don't mind me, I'm just soaking up knowledge