Starting a Clamp Collection

[bob vaughan]

24" pipes are too short in my opinion unless you do a lot of not wide glue ups.. I would do 36" and bigger. Remember with a 24" clamp you don't have 24" of clamping area.

Red

While I still agree with Red's suggestions, I couldn't help but smile at irony in a glue-up I was doing this afternoon. About 15" x 47" using the pipe clamps. This is a dry fit-up to get the clamps in the right positions. Since this a mortise and tenon frame, the clamp's moveable jaw needs to be up pretty far because when the glue is applied and the frame is set in the clamps, I want plenty of room left on the screws to push things together. Too much foolaround moving the clamp's back jaws will allow the glue to set up where you don't want it to.

 

[bob vaughan]

"hindsight is 20-20"
A friend today was looking at my clamp rigs and mentioned something I should have mentioned. He says to get schedule 80 pipe instead of schedule 40 like the big box stores carry. It is much more rigid for pipe clamp application. A regular plumbing supply house is likely to carry it but onely in 20' lengths. Maybe one day I'll use my clamp budget for that upgrade.