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A friend of mine let me raid some of his wood supply because he had no plans to use it. They were long pieces of pine, about 5-6 feet and I wanted to use them to make more of my clamps. I ripped them to 1-5/8 in. and cut them to the lengths for the bar, jaw, caul, and stop. I had to dip into my own supply to get the number of clamps I planned to make.

Between the cutting, milling, gluing, sanding and finishing, this punctuated with more mundane yard work, I got nine clamps made, 4 two footer (two foot holding capacity), 4 three footers, and one four footer (to add to the 3 four footers I previously made.)

Each of these clamps weighs less than two pounds yet has enough strength to hold pieces together while the glue dries.

I've created a pdf file with instructions and photos of how to build this clamp. The file can be found here.

EDIT: I have an upgrade for these clamps which is described here [link]

EDIT : And perhaps better described [here.]

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Comments

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3 Posts
Nice clamps and very good design.
 

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1,430 Posts
Your solution for the attachment of the handle is the best I've ever seen on this style clamp and seems like the obvious solution now that you've shown it. Really nice pieces.
 

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1,155 Posts
That handle is actually Mark II. The Mark I was more of a spinner, like you see on a C-clamp. This one acts as a spinner or a twist grip, depending on how you use it.
 

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375 Posts
I will have to second derosa's comment. Now that you have shown how you made the handles I'm thinking how simple and how cool is that!! Great job on the clamps.
 

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706 Posts
Bessey look out !
 

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looks great. Why the angle on the bottom of clamp. Your top looks square but looks like 4 or 5 degrees on the bottom ? thanks
 

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pbjguy, The angle is to compensate for the movement of that jaw stop. It helps keep the clamping surface of the jaws parallel.
 

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101 Posts
You are giving me some really good ideas here. Thank you.
 

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5 Posts
Fantastic! The only other way to get some serious length with clamps is to use pipe clamps (which I'm not fond of at all). These are a great solution. Do you see much flex or bowing with the pine?
 

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2,584 Posts
The first wooden clamp I thought was worth duplicating. Well done.
 

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122 Posts
Very interesting and useful project for small amount of money I soppose.
 

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Daniel Wise, As long as the clamp is used to hold two boards together and not to try cranking the edges together they work great.
 

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878 Posts
I had already seen similar clamps, but as our fellows above already said, the handle is pure genius. As I can't seem to find pipe clamps here in France I will definately make similar ones. Thanks a lot for sharing the smartness! :)
 

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405 Posts
ESTUVISTE GENIAL DAVE!!!!!!!
YO ME HICE UNAS PARECIDAS, PERO ME PARECE
QUE TU SISTEMA ES MEJOR Y PIENSO ADOPTARLO ;-D
 

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Hmm. it looks like I'd make a bunch of folks happy if I took my instructions, added photos and made them available. I'll try to do that this week.
 

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Sodabowski, Glad to help. Never thought I'd be going international.
 
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