woodcanuck Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 I was lucky enough to get some shop time yesterday and took a shot at using the toggle clamps. I tried them out in two orientations. 1 - in a bench hook for holding work down. I didn't have much work to do here, so it was basically playing around and testing out the range. It delivers on the 0-2" range without fail. I did find that if the clamping pad is moved closer to the level axis, there is a break point where the clamping pressure causes it to slip down the bar towards the end. For most applications I suspect I would just leave the pad at the far end of the bar anyway. On one toggle clamp the spring mechanism for the self adjustment wasn't seated fully and would pop up when you put pressure on it. I think it just needs to be seated properly and it will be fine, I will look at it more and maybe post a picture of it next time I'm out in the shop. There is a small screw with a spring on it that seems to engage the self adjusting mechanism as you put pressure on it. I wasn't clear on its purpose, but I got the impression this was for setting the clamping pressure. Is this right? If my assertion about clamping pressure is true, I'll try it out with some softer woods and see if the pressure adjustment can prevent denting. 2 - in a quickly thrown together tenoning jig for the table saw. This was more a real world test since I had some maple rails to cut tenons into. The jig itself was slapped together, but the toggle clamp was there to act as the only thing holding the workpiece in place as it went through the saw. The ability to go from a 3/4" to 1" to 1 1/2" boards without monkeying around with the toggle clamp was a huge improvement over past tenoning jigs I've used. I lost track of testing it as it worked so well...I had absolutely no problem with the holding power and it was a treat to use when I had to switch board thicknesses. Not great pictures...but here are a couple of the clamp in the tenoning jig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggie83 Posted January 19, 2011 Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 Ian stole my idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodcanuck Posted January 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 Guilty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggie83 Posted January 19, 2011 Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 I have another idea about using them on .... wait, not so fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodcanuck Posted January 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 Is it a crosscut jig? :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyami Plotke Posted January 21, 2011 Report Share Posted January 21, 2011 Ian, I too just made a quick mock up, but so far in testing, I'm very impressed with their grip and workability across a range of thicknesses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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