Two Short Clamps


Mark J

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Hundred foot long table?

Yes, 100 feet. It was an indusrial fabric cutting table for a garment factory. Basically 10 steel table frames of 10' each, with a 1.25" thick MDF top in 10' x 6' wide sections, with tongue & groove joints between. Two pipe clamps pulled all those t & gs tight in one go.

The MDF top was used for cutting garment pieces from stacks of fabric up to 6" deep, with cutting machines similar to a hand held jig saw. The same factory made custom, one-off high-end dresses. Those pieces were cut by hand with a razor knife, on a 6' wide x 20' long section of end grain maple "cutting board". Those boards started 4" thick, and when they started chipping from all the cuts, were sanded smooth using a flooring sander. When they got down to 1.5" thick, we had to toss them, as the sanding made them pretty non-flat by then. As I recall, a board lasted about 3 years.

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Thanks for the thread. I always run into this issue and was never able to figure out how. Didn't think about turning the clamps around as I didn't know they did that. After reading through the other ideas. I was thinking how easy it would be to get some type of chain quick connect chain link to put in the two holes.

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18 hours ago, Llama said:

They don't fit the Jorgs.

poop.  

 

I like Rick N's chain link idea, or a steel bar like wdwerker suggested.  But anything that joins two parallel clamps tail to tail requires removing one of the fixed heads (from any maker's clamp).  Looking at my Jorgys and Jets I'm not seeing how they would easily come off (and go back on!).  

 

 

10 hours ago, JosephThomas said:

Financial problems, embezzled money.

I'd be interested in getting some more detail on Jorgensen, just for my curiosity.  Can you direct me to any source information. My internet searches have turned up nothing more than that they are out of business.  

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4 hours ago, Mark J said:

 

poop.  

 

I like Rick N's chain link idea, or a steel bar like wdwerker suggested.  But anything that joins two parallel clamps tail to tail requires removing one of the fixed heads (from any maker's clamp).  Looking at my Jorgys and Jets I'm not seeing how they would easily come off (and go back on!).  

 

 

I'd be interested in getting some more detail on Jorgensen, just for my curiosity.  Can you direct me to any source information. My internet searches have turned up nothing more than that they are out of business.  

Not sure what else I read that week, this is the only article (from the schwarz) that I can recall right now..

https://blog.lostartpress.com/2016/05/30/pony-tools-suspends-operations/

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  • 2 weeks later...

I went to the home store and bought the quick connect chain link to connect the two clamps together to see if it would work. I couldn't quite figure out how to take off the fixed head and I found this video of this guy doing exactly what we talked about.

He beat me too the punch, but hey it works great!

My only problem was that the quick connect on the jet clamps is farther apart so you either need a very long quick connect or three of them to link together.

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14 hours ago, Rick N said:

I went to the home store and bought the quick connect chain link to connect the two clamps together to see if it would work. I couldn't quite figure out how to take off the fixed head and I found this video of this guy doing exactly what we talked about.

 

He beat me too the punch, but hey it works great!

My only problem was that the quick connect on the jet clamps is farther apart so you either need a very long quick connect or three of them to link together.

 

I like the guys solution.  Besides being cheap (always a double plus),  you can get them at the local hardware store instead of ordering online and the quick link stays away from the project surface, where I think the Bessey extenders will require some provision to protect the project from scratches.  Using three links for the Jet is probably almost as good.  

But I think all the tail to tail solutions share one compromise.  There is no way to remove the fixed jaw from the bar.  At least I can't see any method for the Jet and Jorgensen clamps that would not require a destructive level of "persuasion".  

The presenter removes both of the movable jaws then re-installs one on backward.  So if he starts with two 4 foot clamps in the end he'll have a maximum clamping distance of something like 7 1/2 feet, which is enough for for a lot of projects.  

If you link the heads (fixed jaws) of the clamps you could have a maximum clamping distance of about 8 1/4 feet, but again it's going to reduce your maximum clamping pressure.  With a wooden yoke it could increase the span and it would be stronger.  

Fortunately there are ways to get something more out of your 4 foot clamps than just 4 feet.   

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