Repairing HF dust collector clamps

Like a lot of people I’m sure, I bought the Harbor Freight My First Dust Collector™ and along with it the Habor Freight My First Dust Collection Accessories Kit™. With the 20% coupon it’s a decent deal – 10’ of hose, two blast gates, a wye, and 10 wire clamps.

http://www.harborfreight.com/dust-collector-accessory-kit-93601.html

However the wire clamps aren’t great – the washer at the end of the screw has a tendency to deform – if you make it too tight, you can drive the screw into the washer, and then its all over. The first time this happened, I chucked the thing in the scrap metal bin. However when #2 and #3 went, I realized I couldn’t really keep doing that or I’d run out of clamps.

Pretty simple really; since the screws are brass or something else soft, I just grabbed an appropriately sized bit, and drilled a hole through the end of the screw. I had to choke the bit up in the chuck almost all the way to control deflection on my drill press. Then I put a finish nail through it and bent the end round. This keeps the washer from climbing up the screw and saves all my clamps.

This is the first one I almost chucked out – I lost the washer, so I had to make a slightly wider pin to fit the washer I had available.