# I'm without a workbench with a side clamp, how to clamp a board?



## JAG07 (Sep 6, 2014)

I'm currently without a workbench that has a side clamp. 
I will eventually need to clamp it down when I want to joint some boards with a hand plane.
I might be in over my head…

Any advice on how to go about this?


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## PLK (Feb 11, 2014)

Try and google "pipe clamp bench vise". Sounds to me like something your looking to do.

Something like:










For a temporary side clamp will work as well.

Paul


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Edges can be done with a hand plane by balancing
the board and using a stop on the end of the bench.

If the board falls over, your technique is unbalanced
anyway, so it's a way to learn how to plane square
edges. If the bench is too high or the board wide
however the edge will be uncomfortably high.


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## Pimzedd (Jan 22, 2007)

Do you have a couple of hand screw clamps and a couple of bar clamps? If so, go to http://www.timberframe-tools.com/tools/twin-screw-face-vise/ and you can see how to clamp a board on edge.


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## MT_Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

I managed to stabilize a piece of 3/4 inch plywood while I ran a router along the edge. Maybe something like this could be clamped to the table to hold your boards.


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## PLK (Feb 11, 2014)

True LJ style. 5 ways to accomplish the same thing! That's what's great about what we do, be innovative and no way is wrong.

Try any of these ways and adapt to your own personal preference.

Paul


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## ColonelTravis (Mar 19, 2013)

Big fan of holdfasts, they help with all sorts of stuff. In the below photos I can't remember what that little hook thing on the end is called, but you can rig up a stop with clamps instead. Or you can quick-screw a hook on there if you don't care about crappymanship. Currently building my new bench, not including the hook thingy.


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## BubbaIBA (Nov 23, 2011)

It depends on how wide and how long the board you want to work on is and the way the slab and the legs meet but if the slab and legs are co-planer the use of a stop and holdfasts through the legs work very well. While my bench has a face vise and I put it to great use if it did not have any vises the use of stops, battens and holdfast would do everything needed. Gravity is a powerful force, we sometimes forget how much so.

ColonelTravis posted as I was typing my post, his says and shows what I was writing about much better than I did.


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## JAG07 (Sep 6, 2014)

Wow, thanks guys. 
I'm honestly going to try as many of these that I can given time and equipment. 
I'll also try to post on my success/failures.


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

I'm with Loren. If your stop block is softwood and has a vee notch in it, you can jam the piece into the notch and it will be held upright as well. That's the arrangement we used in the shipyards to plane the edges of planks, some of them over 20' long.


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## buildingmonkey (Mar 1, 2014)

I used a workmate for years before I got my shop set up.


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

The hook thing ColonelTravis refers to is a crochet. Pretty thorough discussion about it here.
EDIT: I should say it seems pretty thorough, as I am no expert!


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