Thread: Yes, you CAN have too many clamps!

A few years back I posted a bit of a WIP on making some wooden-handscrews & repeated the old saying “you can’t have too many clamps”. I was already beginning to doubt if that was true, but I recently decided you certainly can have too many!

My undoing is my desire to test any & every kind of wood that falls into my hands if it looks like a candidate for threading. It has caused a large number of clamps to be made over the years. I put any likely bits aside until I have enough bits for a small batch, & when the mood strikes, I have a little screw-making session. It only takes a few minutes to turn up a screw blank, and once the router is set up, less than a minute to run each one through the threading jig, so it doesn’t take that long to make a batch of clamps.

Recently, a friend asked me to show him the procedure, so I set up & did a demo. After he left, I decided I may as well clean up the remaining bits I had set aside, which turned out to be enough for about 8 of the ¾” screw size (the size I find most handy for cabinetmaking activities), plus several more of the small ½ inch “instrument maker” size.
For an encore I made a couple more with 7/8” screws because I wanted to see how small a diameter thread the “primitive” tap is capable of making. Seven eigths.jpg

But when I went to hang the new lot on my ‘clamp wall’, I ran into a problem. There wasn’t enough room to squeeze in a single ‘nother clamp. Too many clamps! Time for a cull……

I started with the little ½ inch jobs, and reduced this pile of 24 to 16: Half inch.jpg

I had 9 larger ones with 5/8 screws that I’ve come to like using quite a lot, so they all got a place: Five eighth.jpg

The ¾” sets were the main problem – 41 of the blighters! Three quarter.jpg

This ridiculous number is because they are the size I find most useful & I also seem to end up with lots of scraps & offcuts of a suitable size for making jaws (~ 45 x 45 x 250mm) and screws (~ 32 x 32 x 400mm) for them, so despite giving or trading many away, the years have seen a steady accumulation. Only 25 went back on the wall, which is still probably a good half-dozen more than I have ever used at the one time, but I wanted to keep at least one example of each wood that took a good thread, for future reference. A few I kept because they go back 35 years or more to when I first started making them seriously & are old friends.

I have 4 big brutes with 1 inch screws that can accommodate >300mm fully opened. I don’t use them all that much because by the time you get to those dimensions, a bar clamp is usually more convenient, but occasionally, the deeper reach of their long jaws is required. The little clamp in front is one of the ½ inch screw type to show the two extremes in my handscrew collection. One inch.jpg

And finally, three different sizes of clamps made using all-thread for the screws. Metal threads.jpg

These were my first attempt at making my own clamps. I really wanted some Jorgensen clamps, with their left/right thread combination and pivoting barrel-nuts that allow them to close off-parallel. I thought they were the bees’ knees in clamps, but were far too expensive for my meagre tool budget at the time, so I decided to have a crack at rolling my own. I got some all-thread and made some barrel-nuts from mild-steel bar. I did consider making my own RH/LH screws but that was in the ‘too hard basket’, so these work on the same principle as the wooden screws, both screws are RH thread & both nuts in one jaw. The end of the top screw is captured in the opposite jaw so it can’t fall out when spinning the clamp to open or close it. Apart from being slow to open & close, they worked well enough, but I quickly found that being able to clamp the jaws off-parallel is no great boon & something I very rarely need to do. They work well, but the wooden screws are much faster to open & close & can apply more than enough force for practical purposes, so the metal ones don’t get much use now.

I don’t know if I had the biggest collection of working wooden clamps in the country, but I reckon I stood a chance of making it to the top 10. I hope I’ve now slipped back in the rankings, and I’ve certainly reduced the load on my walls: handscrews.jpg

Plus I have a box full of potential trade items: Spares.jpg


Cheers,