Thread: Tool Identification Odd Clamp

Vulcanising clamp for tyre tubes.
I've got one somewhere

vulcanising clamp for tyre tubes - Google Search

It's a vulcaniser tyre patch clamp.
You see them frequently at second hand places and swap meets.

Thanks - way before my time - old tech - I remember patching a bike tyre and applying just some stinky glue.

But that was the extend of my bike repair skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ennV0BVFZVw

I think I will clean it up and hang it on the wall.

In my early days of motoring, I always carried one of these things in my toolbox, along with a good pair of tyre levers and the necessary patches. There was something a bit magical about lighting the gun-powder-like heating patch & having the bit of rubber under the metal 'melt' onto the tube. It made for a very solid bond!

Whether it's the cleaner roads or better material in the tubeless tyres of today, I rarely get punctures any more, and if I do it's a job for the professionals. Since I gave up regular cycling decades ago, the only flat tyres I have to deal with now are on my ride-on mower! The bleeding things have paper-thin tyres and flimsy inner tubes that even sticks and thorns penetrate. I'm constantly having to fix them, but of course nowadays it's just a peel-&-stick routine....

Cheers,

There was something a bit magical about lighting the gun-powder-like heating patch & having the bit of rubber under the metal 'melt' onto the tube
Agree. And the smell! Nothing quite like it as the smoke rises and wafts about
They'd obviously got the formula right. I often wondered why the tube didn't melt

Had a quick look and you cannot even get the heating patches. Read about the possibility that the process was toxic and it was outlawed or glue was simpler and easier then fire, smoke burns and lawsuits. Still interesting.

We are showing our age by knowing what that clamp is for.

I wouldn't mind a $ for every time I used one of those, every truck had one and a box of patches in the tool kit. Occasionally the inner surfaces of the tube would adhere to each other from the heat, putting a bit of talcum powder into the tube was one way of stopping that happening. A quarrying outfit I worked for had an electric vulcaniser on the wall in the workshop.
In the 90's, I chucked the tubed wheels and equipped my old Louisville with tubeless rims, an expensive exercise, but I calculated that my punctures decreased by about 75 - 80 %
We met a member of the WA Orchid Society out in the bush a few years ago and he had a pile of vulcanisers with him that he used with two pieces of thin ply for pressing flower samples.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Originally Posted by IanW

Whether it's the cleaner roads or better material in the tubeless tyres of today, I rarely get punctures any more, and if I do it's a job for the professionals. Since I gave up regular cycling decades ago, the only flat tyres I have to deal with now are on my ride-on mower! The bleeding things have paper-thin tyres and flimsy inner tubes that even sticks and thorns penetrate. I'm constantly having to fix them, but of course nowadays it's just a peel-&-stick routine....

Cheers,

Ian

Glad to hear that comment. I thought I was the only one to suffer that. I suspect that the tyres come with ready made holes.

I have one of those clamps kicking around somewhere and while I knew what it was for, I have never used it.

Regards
paul

Originally Posted by IanW

the only flat tyres I have to deal with now are on my ride-on mower! The bleeding things have paper-thin tyres and flimsy inner tubes that even sticks and thorns penetrate. I'm constantly having to fix them, but of course nowadays it's just a peel-&-stick routine....
,

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Ian

Glad to hear that comment. I thought I was the only one to suffer that. I suspect that the tyres come with ready made holes.

I was sick and tired of patching holes, so I went to my tyre bloke and he replaced my tyres with good quality tubeless tyres and I’ve only had one puncture in about 5yrs

Also the tine that had the spare patches in had a lid with what looked like a rasp for roughing the area around the puncture hole to provide virgin bounding of the patch

Originally Posted by Chesand

We are showing our age by knowing what that clamp is for.

Looks like a new age group has been created
All those of the age of vulcanising clamps raise your hand

Originally Posted by Avondale

Looks like a new age group has been created
All those of the age of vulcanising clamps raise your hand

I am not ashamed to raise my hand. I can remember using one or similar to repair a bike tube.

Originally Posted by Avondale

Looks like a new age group has been created
All those of the age of vulcanising clamps raise your hand

No, not me.
I'm sure I just read about it somewhere.