Has anyone tried re-handling f clamps before?

[Doris]

Hi guys,

I have a pair of large old f clamps which are in great shape apart from the handles are disintegrating. I want to turn up some new handles for them and assumed that it would be the same as re-handling a chisel. But there is a pin through each shaft of the clamp's thread where the handle would go.

I have looked at the original handles that were disintegrating and it seems they were splitting from where the slots were cut to allow for these pins to fit through.

Also the ferrules for each clamp seem to be just bits of brass sheeting and was hoping to buy some nice ferrules that would fit the handles the same way you would for a chisel.

In other words could I get away with cutting off these pins on the shaft in order to fit the handles (which I haven't made yet) much easier. Or would this action lose the torque in the handle for the clamp as a result?

Thank you in advance.

[soundman]

Even in some of the better quality clamps, the handle is the nastiest part .... clamps are generally may by metalworking companies ..... they only get a handle at all because it has to have one.

you have to be ahead with a good piece of timber and a nice solud ferruel.
The pin on most of my clamps is drive thru Ferruel, handle, tang and all after the handle is fitted.

As for turning torque without the pin ..... remember in a manufacturing situation all handles will be drilled alike and they want em to go on easy.

I recon if you have well seasoned timbe, a good solid ferruel and a solid driven fit, that handle will handle quite a bit of turning force on its own.

If the handles turn out not to cop the twisting .... refit them with some epoxy, drill em thru and pit a pin.

There are a couple of places around that sell ready to go brass ferruels ..... I few years ago I went to George Westons and baught some brass tube off cuts in various diameters and had a mate part em off in the lathe ...... there is nothing like having a variety of Ferruel sizes when you set about making handles.

I have used scraps of copper pipe cut up with a hacksaw in the past, but it is a poor secont to brass, in both form and function.

cheers

[Paul39]

Doris,

I make larger handles for my turning tools as I have large hands and arthritis.

I use salvaged copper pipe, steel tubing, and copper pipe couplers for my ferrules. They can be cut with a fine toothed hack saw and the rough edges smoothed on a piece of sandpaper stuck on a flat surface.

Short pieces can be chucked in the lathe and parted off with a parting tool. The steel is a bit hard on the tool but it can be sharpened. Copper and brass cut nicely.

If your chuck is too large to grab the tubing, turn a round that the chuck will grab, make a hole the size of the tubing, cut that in half, insert tubing, put in chuck and tighten.

I drill my handles to be a easy slip fit for the round tool, roughen the end of the tool that is to go into the handle with 80 grit sandpaper, coat with two part epoxy and put some epoxy in the hole, and rotate the tool into the handle. This makes a nice solid fit.

For your purposes, using hardwood, I don't think you would need a ferrule as you will not have side force on the handle as you would with a lathe tool.

[Sawdust Maker]

I think the pin is there stop the handle rotating on the shaft

[Christos]

I personally have not done this but cannot see why it cannot be done.

After you have repaired them you will know that you saved them from the trash bin and might even feel pride in your work. One of my joys of making something is being able to make something.

[ian]

I have a pair of large old f clamps which are in great shape apart from the handles are disintegrating. I want to turn up some new handles for them and assumed that it would be the same as re-handling a chisel. But there is a pin through each shaft of the clamp's thread where the handle would go.

could I get away with cutting off these pins on the shaft in order to fit the handles (which I haven't made yet) much easier. Or would this action lose the torque in the handle for the clamp as a result?

brief answer is NO

A clamp handle is subjected to very much greater turning (twisting) force than a chisel
the pin is what transfers that force from the handle to the clamp.
don't cut it off

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

If you did cut 'em off, you might get away with it for a while. But all glues age over time... and eventually you'd end up with free-spinning handles.

Will the pins knock out with a small drift? AFAICT all my wooden handled ones will... my cheap, plastic handled ones are another story. I'm dreading rehandling them; I've been procrastinating over it for a few years now, although they sorely need it.

[Fuzzie]

Maybe a cheap fix would be to replace a cutoff pin with a suitable size high tensile bolt and nut if the original couldn't be rescued and reused.

On a related issue, has anybody got any good ideas for replacing the little swiveling foot on a clamp that has gone MIA?

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[powderpost]

brief answer is NO

A clamp handle is subjected to very much greater turning (twisting) force than a chisel
the pin is what transfers that force from the handle to the clamp.
don't cut it off

Agreed 100%. I have replaced a few handles over the years. I used copper tube for the ferrule and a 75mm nail through the hole as a pin, cut it off a little proud and gently panel beat it like a rivet.

Jim

[Doris]

Will the pins knock out with a small drift?

Nope. Although I may try to larger hammer tomorrow. But it looks as though the pins are tightly in the shaft, no visible gaps around where the pin meets the shaft at all.

[Mobyturns]

Dad used to just get a length of water pipe welded onto the old Dawn & Bessey clamps that lost a plastic or wooden handle grip.

[Paul39]

When I recommended gluing on handles above, I was laboring under the delusion that there would be 75 - 100 mm of shaft to glue into the handle.

If there were 15 - 20 mm to glue into the handle it would not work.

[Sawdust Maker]

As a suggestion you could glue the new handle to it and when dry drill an appropriate sized hole through the ferrule, wood and shaft and then drive the pin through that

[Chris Parks]

Fit handle, drill hole, fit a ROLL pin. Roll Pins are spring steel pins fitted to slightly undersize holes and they never move but can be removed easily with a drift or parallel punch. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=r...wpAaIQ_AUIBigB

[Stewie D]

On a related issue, has anybody got any good ideas for replacing the little swiveling foot on a clamp that has gone MIA?

Fuzzie, there was a guy selling these on ebay.au a few months back.

Stewie