Archives

I lost the rubber pads that came with my clamps. I liked the way the pads protected the wood, so I decided to make my own. After a couple dips in liquid plastic ($9 at a hardware store), my [...]

I recently made a couple of recipe boxes with finger joints. I didn’t have enough regular clamps to glue both boxes at once, so I decided to use band clamps. During my dry run, I discovered that [...]

Tool: Miter-Tight Picture Fram Clamp [Buy Now]  Manufacturer: Rockler MSRP: $99.99 If you’d like to make picture frames—particularly with pre-made moldings—be warned: Aligning those miters can [...]

I made a clamping device for my bench that can quickly snug up a board just by swinging a lever. The lever has a cam that pushes a sliding stop tight against the board. I made all the parts from [...]

Some objects aren’t easy to hold for drilling. When I run into a situation like this, I use a wooden-jawed handscrew that has sandpaper glued to one side of it, so it doesn’t move [...]

When your hands aren’t strong or large enough to put the last squeeze on a big clamp, try clamping the clamp. My ingenious wife, who has very small hands, invented this solution. She works [...]

Tool: Pipe Vise Manufacturer: Lee Valley Price: $65 A tail vise is an essential part of a first-class workbench. It’s used to hold work on top of the bench, between dogs. Most types of tail [...]

C-clamps can make nasty dents that are tough to sand out. Pads or block will prevent this, but they’re often awkward to hold in place while you tighten the clamps. I make pads that [...]

The Bessey GearKlamp is designed to reach into places that just weren’t possible with your average bar clamp or f-clamp. Today on the blog, David Lyell gives us his review.

In my ongoing quest for finding adequate substitutions for the vanishing North American clamp manufacturers, I recently discovered an exceptionally strong forged steel C-clamp that will surely [...]

We love the original wooden-handled Bessey K Body clamps. But they became unavailable in 2008 when Bessey released the Revo clamps, which had a larger clamping surface (of about 30 percent) than [...]

Clamp Leash My spring clamps always seem to be out of reach or scattered around the shop. To solve my problem, I suspended my dog’s old leash over my workbench. Now my spring clamps are [...]