Anyone who has had to make something with their own hands in the direction of improving their own home, there is no need to talk about the importance of various clamps and clamps. Without their presence, it is impossible to imagine both carpentry and metalwork. To qualitatively process any part, you need a clamp. With your own hands, it is quite possible to make it at home with the help of the most elementary tools.

Types and types of clamps

Mechanical clamping devices differ both in purpose and in the material from which they are made. The main raw materials are wooden beams.

Sometimes clamps are assembled with a rather complex spatial configuration: they provide both horizontal and vertical compression of the workpiece being processed. For assembly when constant monitoring is required right angle, the 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 clamps based on a screw mechanism. But anything that can provide the necessary compressive force can be suitable for the design. Up to cut from old car cameras.

Why not just buy them?

In any tool store, clamps are presented in a more or less wide range. And any master has a sufficient number of them in his arsenal. What usually stops a craftsman from buying another one? Firstly, the price - a quality instrument cannot be cheap by definition. Secondly, it is not always possible to find what you need. A do-it-yourself clamp, made for a specific task, ensures the process of assembling the product on an individual basis. With the help of a universal clamp from a tool store, this can not always be achieved.

Disadvantages of a standard tool

On the construction market, you can find a lot of clamps that look like real ones and are expensive, but they only work for a very short time. They are usually made in China. They will have to be thrown away after the money that was paid for them. Most often it fails, it is made of a cheap low-quality alloy. If there is no desire to throw money away, then you should think about how to make a clamp with your own hands. This will not only result in another useful thing in the tool arsenal of the master, but also an increased level of skill and self-respect.

Do-it-yourself clamp: what is needed for its manufacture

First of all, it is necessary to acquire a high-quality hardwood timber or a piece of a metal rolled profile (preferably a channel section) - this is the basis on which the stop and the screw mechanism should be mounted. It is he who is the most important element of the clamp. A bolt with a large thread profile nut is best suited. To assemble the structure into a single whole, you will need a drill with nozzles and standard bolted fasteners. Making clamps with your own hands does not require outstanding qualifications, but you should still have elementary carpentry and locksmith skills.

Making a clamp

The most important advantage of a homemade 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 the future product. A do-it-yourself clamp can and should last a very long time, but this will only happen if it is correctly designed and correctly assembled.

An emphasis and a screw mechanism must be mounted on the supporting bed bar. The free play of the screw provides sufficient compressive force. The fastening of the stop and the screw with the nut should prevent them from being pulled out of the fixed position when the technological force is applied. 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 clamp will have to be compressed with the help of which is neither productive nor functional.

In order to be able to use the clamp in as many operations as possible, the emphasis on it is usually made in the form of a removable block that 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 one bed base. The efforts invested in the manufacture of a technological tool always give the proper return when using it.

Novice woodworking enthusiasts will find our instructions with a sequentially described process for the manufacture of carpentry clamps of several varieties will be useful. In it, we will tell you what materials to use for this and how to make a device that is exactly suitable for your own needs.

Materials for body, stop and jaws

In carpentry, clamps are used to securely and carefully hold several parts together while they are mechanically connected or while the glue dries. The pressing force should not be colossal, it is much more important not to damage the surface of the parts to be joined. At the same time, the clamp must maintain high strength and be durable.

For the manufacture of clamp parts that are in direct contact with the workpiece, it is better to use hardwood. Ideally, these are bars and planks made of larch, beech, hornbeam or birch. Such a tree has a sufficiently high strength and at the same time is elastic, restoring its shape well. The hardness of such wood is usually higher than that of the processed parts, which can be compensated by heels made of leather, light rubber, felt or softer wood.

Both solid wood and rolled metal can be used as a frame for the clamp. corners or profile pipes fit well, but they need to be carefully cleaned, primed and painted so that there are no traces of rust on the finished product. To prevent accidental mechanical damage or punching of the parts to be joined, it is recommended to stick wooden planks over the metal elements of the clamp or pull on a loose silicone hose.

Which screw and flywheel to use

Despite not very high clamping force, conventional metric threaded studs will not be very suitable for use as a clamp screw, except for a very small one. A small thread pitch will make it tedious to choose a free stroke, among other things, a triangular profile is “eaten up” much faster.

It would be much more correct to purchase studs with a trapezoidal or rectangular thread, otherwise called a jack thread. The optimal step is about 2-2.5 turns per centimeter, so a good smoothness of adjustment and an optimal tightening force for wooden parts are achieved.

You can get studs, nuts and fittings of the right type either by contacting a turner directly or in a hardware store, including on the Internet. There is, however, one BUT: most factory products have a full thread, while a slightly different screw configuration is optimal for a clamp. Ideally, if there are smooth pillars at the ends of the stud: about 20 mm long for the bearing fit (slightly thicker than the thread) and about 30-40 mm for the handle (slightly thinner or the same diameter).

The handle or flywheel can be made either from a block of wood, or by drilling a hole in the side of the stud and inserting a steel bar into it as a toggle lever, like on a vice.

Straight screw clamp

For the manufacture of the simplest clamp, you will need a frame in the form of a U-shaped bracket. It can be made in two ways. The first is to connect three bars at right angles on a tongue-and-groove joint, reinforcing it with glue and a pair of dowels. This option requires a fairly high qualification of the carpenter: hemming and fitting must be done with high accuracy, because the load in these nodes is very significant.

The second option is somewhat simpler, but more expensive in terms of material consumption. You can cut the bracket out of thick birch plywood by gluing 3-4 blanks 12-16 mm thick with Titebond wood glue.

When choosing the shape of the parts, keep in mind that the most reliable design will be with external slopes for greater rigidity. The stop of the bracket and its opposite part, in which the clamping screw will be fixed, must be trapezoidal. In this case, the inclined sides should diverge outward at an angle of about 30º more than a straight one. Thickening in the middle of the frame is also highly desirable.

To fix the screw, it is recommended to use nuts or nuts of the appropriate diameter, which are fixed in one of the “horns” of the clamp frame with inside and reinforced with epoxy resin. If the bracket was assembled from bars, then you need to insert a screw into one of them before final assembly. If the frame structure is multi-layered, then the bushings can be replaced with nuts, which are glued into the cut of the central plywood layer. Here it is important to monitor the direction of the axis of the screw and at the same time prevent glue from getting into the threaded connection - lubricate it well with grease.

At the point where the clamping heel is attached to the screw, some kind of swivel is necessary so that the parts do not move when clamped. It is best to press a bearing, selected according to the diameter of the inner race, onto the whole edge of the screw stud. For a secure stop, clamp the pin into the drill chuck, and then cut a groove under the retaining ring with a triangular file and a hacksaw. Next, in the bar serving as a support heel, you need to make a cylindrical groove with a core drill and press the bearing with the pin into it, strengthening the fit with varnish or epoxy.

Adjustable universal clamp

Clamps with a variable opening width are more versatile in application, they are most often used for rallying furniture panels. To make such a clamp, you will need a calibrated rail made of dry hardwood, ideally beech or ash. A constant profile size is required along the entire length and the complete absence of any defects. The clamping force that the clamp can withstand directly depends on the thickness and width of the rail.

So, manufacturing should begin with fixing a perpendicular stop at one end of the longitudinal rail. It is better to make it from two bars that fold and clamp the rail in two symmetrical grooves, or fill it in the manner of a hammer. Thus, the workpiece for a clamp with a fixed stop acquires a T-shape, and the length of the stop on the working side should be no more than 3 times longer than the projection on the reverse side. The connection of the stop with the rail can be strengthened with furniture ties, it is also possible to connect on 2-3 dowels and PVA glue.

The reverse part of the stop is designed to secure the bowstring. A straight steel bar with a diameter of 10-12 mm is ideal for it. At the end of the bar, thread should be cut and spread between the end stops with nuts from the inside. Holes for the bowstring should be drilled as close as possible to the back edge of the stop. In this case, the indentation from the edge should be sufficient so that the wood does not split. After installing the bowstring, it is necessary to mark a number of notches on the end of the bar facing the clamped part, in increments of 15-20 mm, make cuts up to 2 mm deep with a hacksaw using this marking, and cut the notches with a knife.

Next, you should make a movable clamp block. A through eyelet of rectangular section is made in it, the dimensions of which exactly correspond to the thickness and width of the longitudinal bar. Ideally, gouge a groove 2-3 mm smaller, and then bring it to the desired shape with a square rasp. The bar should sit snugly in the last, but at the same time allow relatively free movement along the clamp and its slope for locking on the notches. Under the bowstring, you also need to make a through hole so that the bar is located strictly perpendicular to the rail, and the block slides freely along it with a slight backlash.

On the reverse side of the hard stop, you need to fill another block, which will fasten the bar with the bowstring parallel to each other. To do this, you can use a small piece of the bar, in which a groove for the bar is made with a chisel and an incomplete hole for the bowstring is drilled. Dowels or bolts are used to fix the pads. As for the clamping screw and the heel, they are installed by analogy with a conventional clamp. It is enough to drill a through hole in the movable block not too close to the edge and paste a futorka or nut into it from the inside. So when the part is clamped, the nut of the screw mechanism will rest against the wood and sit even tighter.

Angle clamp

The most difficult to manufacture can be called a clamp, which ensures the fixation of two parts at a right angle. At the same time, it is the most useful and sought-after tool in the carpenter's workshop.

The basis for the corner clamp will be a piece of thick plywood. It is better to take a square plank of about 300x300 mm with a thickness of at least 14 mm. In the corner of the base, you need to fix two bars of hardwood, which for convenience we will call reference. These pads must converge at a right angle facing the center of the plywood board, the thickness of the bars is at least 25x25 mm. Their fastening should be as rigid as possible: it is recommended to first glue the bars, ensuring their perpendicularity with the help of a bench square, and then strengthen the connection with ties or bolts.

From the center of each block, you need to draw a perpendicular line, coaxial with which the screw studs will be located. It is necessary to retreat from the bars by a distance of 20-30 mm more than the maximum thickness of the parts to be tightened. After that, two more bars are rigidly attached to the base parallel to the previous ones. It is advisable to glue the nuts immediately, and then proceed with the stop bars in the same way as with the reference ones: first position them on the adhesive joint, and then strengthen them with ties. For greater convenience, you can immediately screw the screw studs into the nuts.

After fixing the thrust bars, it remains only to press on the bearings fixed in the movable blocks. The cross section, dimensions and material of the latter should be similar to the reference bars. Finally, you need to fill the handles or insert the toggle levers and cut off the excess base of the clamp, removing the protruding corners for free rotation by the screw handles

Individual clamps for specific operations

In any carpentry workshop, homemade clamps show themselves to be more adapted to local working conditions than purchased in a store. You can use a wide range of variations of the three designs described above.

For example, on one rail, you can fix not one, but two adjustable pads for positioning parts at a great distance. Such a tool will be very useful, for example, when assembling door blocks.

Instead of a handle, you can weld a regular hexagonal bolt cap onto the stud. This is true if, when assembling parts, several clamps need to be often clamped, released and rearranged. At the same time, it will be convenient to rotate the clamping screw using a ratchet socket head or even a screwdriver.

To assemble products of complex shape, you can make clamp stops and movable blocks of a more complex configuration, which are well suited for working with irregularly shaped parts.

Reading time ≈ 5 minutes

A clamp is a tool that resembles a hand vise, which is used to securely fix or glue two elements together. For example, in carpentry, it is used to connect two planes while the adhesive solution dries. However, this tool is not always at hand, so you can independently resort to the manufacture of a quick-clamping structure. To properly make a clamp with your own hands from metal, you need to follow step-by-step instructions with photo and video master classes.

Design features

The clamp can quickly fail, so it's important to know how to make homemade tool. The components of this metal structure are the lever part, the frame, the jaws of the clamp and the moving part.

What are the advantages of clamping tools:

The clamp can also be made of wood, but the metal construction is more practical and reliable. Its manufacture does not require special knowledge and skills, you only need the use of welding equipment, a hacksaw and a burner. The whole process with step by step instructions shown in the video.

Models of clamping tools are divided into the following classes according to the operation of mechanisms and structural features:

Manufacturing technology

A do-it-yourself metal clamp is much more reliable and practical than a wooden structure. For the manufacture of home-made units, welding equipment and locksmith units will be required.

Tools for making clamps of any type

1 option

Following the instructions, you can make a homemade clamp from metal fittings.

Option 2

To make a corner clamping tool with our own hands, we will need the following materials: steel trimmings from the corner 40 * 40, 50 * 50 and 30 * 50 to 200 mm, 2 F-shaped clamps and a strip 10 * 50 to 250 mm long.

Let's get started:

Buying clamps in hardware stores is quite expensive. Everyone wants to get rid of extra costs if there are alternatives. You may need several such tools at once, this is especially true when assembling, manufacturing or repairing furniture. Homemade clamps will replace your hand vise, as it is possible to choose the model, type and size of the tool. Following the instructions in the photo and video, you can quickly figure out the manufacturing mechanism and quickly make a manual clamp from improvised materials.

Repair and manufacture of furniture, various wooden or metal products is not possible without the use of clamps. Modern tool stores offer a large selection of these products. Conventionally, they can be divided into two large groups. The first combines clamps using threaded parts. Clamps of this group are called screw. They can have a stationary bracket of one size or another or a sliding one.

The second group combines clamps that are based on wire or flat springs and are called springs, respectively.

Any master for work may need up to several dozen different clamps. The acquisition of such a number of tools will require a sufficient number Money. It is much more economical to make the clamps yourself. About how to make different kinds do-it-yourself clamps, will be discussed later.

Making a screw clamp

A simple screw clamp can be made with a steel sheet 8-10 millimeters thick, a finished rod with an M8 or M10 thread and several nuts of the same size.

First, using a template or other ready-made clamp, mark the bracket on the selected workpiece. In this case, it is possible to take into account the requirements of specific operating conditions of the clamp and produce a bracket of the required size.

The next step is cutting the workpiece. The thickness and geometric shape of the workpiece of the future clamp makes it problematic to use a grinder for this type of work. In this case, it is better to use an acetylene torch or a gas cutter.

At the stage of grinding the edges of the resulting bracket, an angle grinder can also be used. Trim the edges according to the marking line and remove the corner burrs.

For a screw clamp, weld a few M8 or M10 nuts on the short side of the shackle. Instead, you can use a piece of hexagonal bar with a length of 40-50 millimeters with an internal thread of the appropriate diameter.

To work with a clamp, select a round rod with an appropriate thread of the required length. From one of the ends, weld a transverse handle to it.

To protect the finished clamp from corrosion, cover the surface of the product with any oil or nitro paint.

Making a screw clamp with a sliding frame

If necessary, it is not difficult to make a clamp with a sliding frame.

For work you will need the following materials:

• steel strip with a section of 40x (8-10) mm;
• threaded rod 10-150 mm long;
• some nuts and round washers.

From the tools you should prepare a grinder, a drill and a welding machine, gas or electric.

The first stage is cutting the strips into blanks of the required length. We will need a stand 500 - 800 millimeters long, a support bar 200 millimeters long and a movable bar of the same length.

By welding, attach a stationary stop to one of the ends of the long part. To provide maximum strength construction, try to get a high quality seam, choose the right welding modes.

The next step is the processing of the sliding bar. It is necessary to mark and make two holes in it, one of which is round, and the second is rectangular.

Obtaining cylindrical holes with an electric drill or a drilling machine will not be difficult. It is enough just to choose a drill of the appropriate diameter, securely clamp it in the tool chuck and drill. The diameter of the round hole must be greater than the diameter of the threaded rod.

Making a rectangular hole will require a lot of time and energy. Stepping back from the edge of the bar 25 millimeters, mark a rectangle 11 × 41 mm along the center line. A small gap will be needed for the plate to move freely along the rack. Next, mark the centers of the holes, stepping back 5 millimeters from the edge of the groove and 10 millimeters apart. To prevent the drill from slipping, the centers of the holes must first be punched. Drill four holes with a diameter of 10 millimeters. Give the final shape to the groove by hand using a square and rectangular file.

Above the round hole of the sliding bar, weld a nut with a thread that matches the rod. Weld a transverse handle to one of the ends of the screw, and a round washer of sufficient thickness to the other. Clean the edges of all parts from metal burrs with sandpaper and assemble the jig.

Making an angle clamp with your own hands

The manufacturing process of a number of products, such as door frames, requires the connection of parts at right angles. For reliable fixation of the constituent elements of wooden or metal structures, corner clamps are used.

A similar clamp can also be made from improvised materials yourself. You will need two trimmings of a steel corner 40x40, 50x50 or 30x50, 200 millimeters each, a piece of a 10x50 strip 250 millimeters long, and two ready-made screw clamps.

Using a locksmith's square without a block to control squareness, install all the details of the structure in accordance with the photo.

By using welding machine attach the corners to the strip on the reverse side.

Also weld the clamps to the bases for a secure fit.

Thus, you get a convenient and reliable device that will repeatedly help you out when performing a number of jobs.

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