DIY version of Rockler's Pock-it Hole Clamp

Great idea – and your video is short and really clear – thanks for posting.

Good idea. To fancy looking for me LOL

I’m going to knock one or two of these out this week end. Thanks for sharing.

First I think this is a great idea, but that is if you have a toggle clamp, which I don’t.
I will try to find something to mimic that, but for me to buy one it is not cost effective.
But that is one handy tool.
Thanks for sharing.

-- If you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got!

I had the toggle clamps sitting in the shop, so yes, it was cheap me. I figure most woodworkers have an assortment of clamps for jigs and such, but maybe not the forward motion toggles.

What most of us are certain to have sitting around, is an assortment of knobs, threaded rod and t-nuts, with which it would be very easy and inexpensive to make a hand crack version, just like the Rockler.

Like I wrote in another forum, Rockler has a brilliant way of pricing their proprietary jigs and such at a price that is juuuuuust high enough that you want to go out in the shop and build your own.

If they ever a 50% off sale on these with free shipping, it would be silly to build your own.
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Here’s what we usually don’t figure into the equation, however…
So you pay $4.50 each, for a couple toggle clamps and $7 shipping to you to make your own version of Rockler’s pocket hole clamp. That’s still less than the price of one Rockler clamp…. and here’s the kicker… you have two toggle clamps you can use for any other homemade jig.

Those Rocklers are UNI-taskers. Maybe it’s just me (and Alton Brown), but uni-taskers frustrate the crap out of me. You pay $40-60 for some clamps that only do one thing. If you’re going to be doing pocket hole joinery all day making decent money from it, I will say right now, it would be stupid not to just buy the Rocklers.

But for a lot (dare I say, most) of us, these would get used once a year. :-) How many of us have paid several bills for a shiny new uni-tasking thingamawidget and not only does it sit there in a drawer for 11-1/2 months out of the year, but it also gets in the way or takes up valuable shop space 90 percent of the time.

If you assemble your own jigs out of reusable, multi-tasking “modular” parts (toggle clamps), then those parts get used all year, for several different tasks, and suddenly 16 bucks for a couple toggle clamps seems like the deal of a century.

I already figured out how to make one without the toggle clamp. I am aiming for the same thing they made but in wood. The only challenge is the screw, I had one on a kitchen gadget, if I could only find it. I even had the rubber head and a knob. I am a fairly new woodworker since i came from a condo, I now own my own home and I have collected my share of shop tools, more that most men I know.
This is a challenge I am going to take on. I love Alton Brown
He has given me the desire to use multitaskers, or make a cheap version of whatever.

I am coming up with a tool that will help me make the table legs I am trying to create. It is so simple, if you haven’t thought of it yourself you will hit your head when you see it.
Sometimes the inexperienced have a lot to say. Call me cheap but 19.99 the price they are now is a bit too much for a unitasker I will only use for a few projects a year.

I looked for a sale, but the best is 19.99 and free shipping, don’t hold your breath for 50% off. :)
Thanks
Rosemarie

-- If you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got!

Neat clamp and a good idea on the make your own. May have to think about that. My wife will tell ya I like the Kreg Jig…
Thanks for sharing.

CtL

-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."- PortablePastimes.com (Purveyors of Portable Fun and Fidgets)

very nice looking jig!

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

Good idea, very handly little jig. How much fancier do you really need to get for a jig though? :)

You know Brandon, every time I make a jig “prototype” that works well, I never end up making a pretty version… why? I’d rather spend time making pretty stuff, instead of making pretty stuff used to make pretty stuff. :-)

but shiny new uni-tasking thingamawidgets make me happy :D

-- - Jei, Rockford IL - When in doubt, spray it with WD-40 and wrap it with duct tape. The details will attend to themselves.

Where would you buy the type of toggle clamp shown in the video?

-- Robert M. Herring

as for the exact clamp I used, google: destaco

But I don’t recommend those. They are expensive and have a design flaw. The fact that they are plastic helps if you accidentally run a blade into one, but other than that, I much prefer the cheap metal ones.

These are much cheaper, have a much smaller footprint, and shorter throw.
http://www.toggleclamps.biz/tg301a-pushpull-toggle-cl301.html

Thanks for the kick in the head reminder that simple thingamawidgets are often simple to make. I confess I was oohhing and ahhing at the Rockler model thinking how much more handy-dandy it would be —and less expensive!—than the official Kreg face clamp that I already paid way to much for.

I’m thinking for clamping a face frame to a carcase, you’d build something with more throat depth, C-clamp style, but the concept would be the same.

-- "A man may conduct himself well in both adversity and good fortune, but if you want to test his character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln