Anyone who had to tinker with their own hands in the direction of improving their own home, there is no need to talk about the importance of all kinds of clamps and clamps. Without their presence, it is impossible to imagine both carpentry and metalwork. In order to qualitatively process any part, a clamp is necessary. With your own hands it is quite possible to make it at home using the most basic tools.
Types and types of clamps
Mechanical clamping devices differ both in designation and in the material from which they are made. The main starting materials are a metal profile and a wooden beam.
Sometimes clamps are assembled in a rather complex spatial configuration: they provide both horizontal and vertical compression of the workpiece. For the assembly of carpentry, when constant monitoring of the right angle is necessary, an angular clamp is very convenient. It is quite possible to make it with your own hands, but it is better to practice on less complex structures.
Clamps also differ in the type of elements that create mechanical compression. The most common are screw clamp clamps. But everything that can provide the necessary compression force can be suitable for the design. Up to rubber bands cut from old car cameras.
Why not just buy them?
In any tool store, clamps are presented in a more or less wide assortment. And any master has enough in their arsenal. What usually stops a craftsman from buying another one? First, price - a quality tool cannot be cheap by definition. Secondly, it is not always possible to find the necessary. A do-it-yourself clamp made for a specific task provides the process of assembly of the product individually. With the help of a universal clamp from a tool magazine, this can be achieved far from always.
The disadvantages of a standard tool
On the construction market you can find many clamps that look like real and expensive, they only work very briefly. They are usually Chinese-made. They will have to be thrown out after the money that was paid for them. Most often, a helical gear breaks down , it is made from a cheap low-quality alloy. If there is no desire to throw money down the drain, then you should think about how to make a clamp with your own hands. The result of this will be not only another useful thing in the instrumental arsenal of the master, but also an increased level of skill and self-esteem.
DIY clamp: what is needed for its manufacture
First of all, you need to get a quality hardwood beam or a piece of metal rolling profile (best of channel section) - this is the basis on which the emphasis and screw mechanism should be mounted. The most important element of the clamp is he. A bolt with a large thread profile nut is best. To assemble the structure as a whole you will need a drill with nozzles and standard bolt fasteners. Making clamps with your own hands does not require outstanding qualifications, but you still need elementary carpentry and locksmith skills.
Making a clamp
The most important advantage of a home-made clamp is its narrow focus on providing a specific technological operation. That is why it is necessary to carefully measure everything and sketch out a schematic drawing of a future product. A self-made clamp can and should last a very long time, but this will happen only if it is correctly designed and correctly assembled.
An emphasis and a screw mechanism must be mounted on the carrier bed. Free running of the screw provides sufficient force for compression. The fastening of the stop and the screw with the nut should exclude their pulling out from a fixed position when applying technological force. An important point is the presence of a flywheel mounted on the head of the process screw. If it is not foreseen and not performed, then the compression of the clamp will have to be carried out using a wrench. Which is neither productive nor functional.
In order to possible use of the clamp in as many operations as possible, the emphasis on it is usually performed in the form of a removable block, which can be placed in several fixed positions. For the assembly of large wooden planes, it makes sense to construct a more complex clamp in the form of a system of two or more screws mounted on a single bed base. The efforts invested in the manufacture of a technological tool always give due return when using it.