# Diy Pneumatic table saw clamps/Holddown



## mark4345 (Oct 7, 2011)

Spent the day working on a better way to hold down my workpieces to the slider. Ive grown tired of constantly fiddling with the standard hold down toggle clamp. I ran across the pneumatic clamps felder sells but at $870 each i cannot justify that for a clamp.

I bought 2 spring return air cylinders, then went to lowes and raided the plumbing isle and heres what i came up with…

















!








!




























All in all really easy to do, aside from the air cylinders they are all parts from the hardware store.


----------



## Loren (May 30, 2008)

That'll do. Good idea.

Bessey makes some manual clamps which adjust automatically
for variations in material thickness… range is 3/8" or something.

... of course pneumatics are more fun to fiddle with.


----------



## Picklehead (Feb 12, 2013)

YOU CAN'T DO THAT! Awesome.


----------



## vikingcape (Jan 3, 2013)

One valve, instant hold down with really strong results. I have messed with air rams (on a touch larger scale) on the commercial fishing vessel I worked on for a time. Really smart idea you have there.


----------



## FirehouseWoodworking (Jun 9, 2009)

Very cool idea, Mark. Well done! Where do you get the cylinders and roughly how much do they run?


----------



## Loren (May 30, 2008)

You can buy all sorts of bargain cylinders on ebay. A lot of
it is new old stock and in small lots.

Not cylinder clamping, but check out the vacuum clamping
rig I made for ripping crazy tapers on my slider.
http://lumberjocks.com/Loren/blog/34255


----------



## mark4345 (Oct 7, 2011)

As loren said, there are lots of them available on ebay. The ones i used are 1 1/16" bore with a 3" stroke. On ebay they can be had for $15-30. Grainger also has a large selection though they are more expensive $25+

That is a pretty slick vacuum clamping rig you got there, that is something i have been thinking about i just haven't had the need nor the project to use it on yet. I am currently working on building a cnc machine, once that is done (who knows when, i have a lot im working on now) i will be taking a closer look at vacuum clamp options.


----------



## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

I just did a search on pneumatic clamps and found your thread.

i was wondering if anybody did shop-made pneumatic vises or bench clamps. i gather that such things are widely used in industry.

How is your clamp / holddown working out for you after a year in service?

-Paul


----------

