Small wooden clamps

**Andy Mac** · 10th November 2007, 11:56 AM

Morning!
I needed some small clamps for a job during the week, to glue some tricky curved plywood pieces. Nothing I had would do the job so I made 6 from a plan in a book I have, Making Mechanical Marvels in Wood. Very simple but they worked really well and I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of them.
They are made from recycled Silver Ash, a nice light but hard timber....any hardwood would suit. 3 of them have jaws about 160mm long, and the others are about 190mm. The smaller ones have 5/32" threaded bar, the larger have 3/16", but I think the book calls for 1/4". The bar is threaded into tapped holes in one jaw, and the Silver Ash took the tapping really well. I haven't epoxied or pinned the rod so far, it seems to hold OK. There is a slotted hole in the other jaw to allow for some angle options, and I ran slots across & along the inside of each jaw using the tablesaw. This is to locate on the upright thin plywood stock I was using, but may prove useful for other clamping (round stock?).
A handy addition to the clamp collection, somewhere between alligator clips and the standard woodie!

Cheers

**Tiger** · 10th November 2007, 12:41 PM

Nice work, some amazing stuff in that book!

**niki** · 10th November 2007, 06:45 PM

Hi Andy

Very nice wok
I made clamps using the same idea but I did not make any thread on the jaw, just drilled smaller hole and forced the threaded rod to make the thread .

Shame that I did not know about this book so, it took me some 5 years to get to the same conclusion (my other clamps are with nuts on both sides of the jaw).

Can you tell me the author name and the number of this book, I'll try to order it here, I like books like this one.

I like very much your idea of the slot to hold round pieces so, see it as "stolen"...

Regards
niki

**Andy Mac** · 10th November 2007, 07:05 PM

Thanks Tiger and Niki!

The book is by Raymond Levy, published by Sterling Pub. NY, 1991 (ISBN 0-8069-7358-7). Its based around some old standard mechanical gizmos like cams and uni joints, a cracker if you're into little interactive models. I've mucked around with the Geneva wheel a bit from the book: (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ighlight=gizmo).

There are a couple of workshop jigs and fixtures that suit the scale of work, like this clamp, but also a really good wedged stop for holding work when planing.

Regards,

**niki** · 10th November 2007, 07:50 PM

Thank you Andy

I'll try to find it in Amazon EU

Regards
niki

**echnidna** · 10th November 2007, 10:28 PM

Niki, If you can't find it in Amazon there is one available in Alibris.com
(there was 2 but I just bought 1)

**niki** · 11th November 2007, 02:49 AM

Thank you
I found it on Amazon UK...for 18 Pounds!!!???
But I found it here for $15
http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Making_Me...?isrc=b-search
That's it less than half price than the UK one...

niki

**Pusser** · 11th November 2007, 10:16 AM

$52 plus postage in Australia! wow

**munruben** · 11th November 2007, 10:49 AM

The clamps look real neat and would be cheap to make. Books a bit expensive though.

**BobL** · 18th November 2007, 12:15 PM

Only just saw these and they look great. I especially like the idea of the slots to hold angles etc.

Cheers

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