Storing clamps

[Jim Andrew]

I could not afford all the clamps and machinery when I was working for a living, now am retired and have more clamps than hardly possible to find space to put on racks. Built my own version of the movable Rockler stand, it is so heavy that it is difficult to move. And there are more clamps on other homemade racks. Would like to use the space in front of my garage door, but then could not get a project out. And do finish one occasionally.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I have a board screwed to the wall above a bench, up near the ceiling. The board has 5/8" dowels about 9 or 10 inches long stuck into it at a slight angle, like a coat rack with longer dowels. I have four handscrews on one, 3 6" C clamps on the next, 16 4" C clamps on the next two, and then pegs devoted to 3", 2" and 1" clamps. Then there are three for spring clamps, of which I have 15, and two for F clamps, 16 in assorted lengths. There is a narrow shelf on top of the rack which holds router bits in boxes, a box of sockets and such, and various other small items. The rack didn't cost anything to build and has ben a great convenience.
Zach

[John TenEyck]

I fear that if I wasn't doing this with money in mind, I'd have even more clamps.

LOL. I'm sure that's quite true for many folks. And not just clamps. Hand planes, routers, there's a long list …

John

[Duncan Foster]

The Rockler HD clamp rack will hold 12 clamps for $40. Cheaper if you have a 20% coupon that they sometimes send out. If you are ordering online they always have free shipping on orders over $35.

Completely agree

[glenn bradley]

How many clamps do you really need? In 30 years of working wood and making cabinets and furniture of all sizes I still only have a dozen or so bar/pipe clamps, and maybe 2 dozen F-style ones.

John

Gluing up multiple assemblies likes this area a daily occurrence for me. I've got over a hundred clamps and often have to glue up in multiple sessions for lack of clamps.

Another great example of how what we do and how we do it varies our value of certain tools, jigs and fixtures. The woodpeckers version looks like a metal version of mine which I picked up in some article or magazine somewhere I'm sure. I used dowels as barrel-nuts and long #10 screws from behind. they hold a variety of clamp types and a respectable amount of weight.

[Jim Becker]

Some folks do well with a few clamps; some do well with a lot of clamps; some prefer a wide variety of clamp types to accommodate "special" things they might do. I personally have zero regrets for the investments I made years ago in parallel clamps by taking advantage of sales and have had a few projects where I used every single one plus some of the pipe clamps I keep in reserve. I am, however, also considering a more consolidated way of hanging them going forward as I make some space adjustments in my shop. I don't have huge amounts of wall space to work with so moving to a "multiple clamp per hanger" method will certainly benefit that. I'm likely going to do something like Glenn shows, leveraging left-over material I have to construct the supports.

[Ellen Benkin]

Thanks everyone for the thorough discussion of various ways to store clamps. I think I'll check out the Rockler system after I actually do an inventory to see how many of which kind of clamps I have.

[Frank Drackman]

I built a simple rack to hold most of my clamps.

Clamp Wall.jpg

[Derek Arita]

Got these racks from Duluth I believe. Anyways, they work great for clamps ad save lots of room. I several for all my clamps.

[Alan Lightstone]

I built a simple rack to hold most of my clamps.

Clamp Wall.jpg

I'm not sure how simple that is, Frank, but it's pretty impressive.

[Alan Lightstone]

Mine was from plans. I think Wood Magazine by a guy named Suwat. Been incredibly helpful for a few years.

IMG_9667.jpg
4643343989_d04b171255_o.jpg
4707330389_b5041b192d_b.jpg

I've outgrown it, but still use it every day.

[Frank Drackman]

That is very kind of you Alan.

I'm not sure how simple that is, Frank, but it's pretty impressive.

[William Chain]

I did something like this. Cut some triangles from 3/4-in ply, knocked the corners off, screwed them to another piece of ply and theryago. More clamps? Add more triangles. I store f-style clamps by loosely clamping them to a T-shaped cleat made from two pieces of scrap 3/4-in ply. Just screw one piece perpendicular to the other. More clamps? Another cleat. Scraps and screws. The WP storage thing is shamefully overpriced. The Rockler ones are ok and more reasonable but if you can make a setup as shown from scraps, why spend $$?

I built a simple rack to hold most of my clamps.

Clamp Wall.jpg

[Pete Staehling]

I have a diverse variety of clamps, but the largest number of them are F clamps, but there are quite a few C clamps and other types as well. Last time I counted I think I counted 65, but I probably missed a few and I think I bought some for specific projects since then so I wouldn't be surprised if I was pretty close to 100. I have often had all of one type in use and been limited in starting another setup for lack of clamps. A lot depends on what you build and how you work, but I could do with more.

A far as storage...

Back many years ago when I was mostly building boats outdoors under a tarp I had a ton of C clamps. They lived in a big canvas bag. Not sure what happened to them, but I wish I still had them all.

These days most of my clamps are loosely clamped to the edge of a high shelf. The shelf was there when I moved in and is high enough to not be very accessible to keep stuff on, but I can reach the clamps okay. I say they are clamped on, but most are actually just loosely slipped on without tightening since I found they stayed put okay without tightening.

[Paul Wunder]

My setup is very similar to Frank Drackman's. However, in order to accommodate my shifting storage needs, I attached a t-slot rail on top of the board that is attached to the wall, I then attached each pair of the triangular hangers to the t-slots using a 1/4 by 20 screw and knob. The clamp brackets are thus hanging from the top of the mounting board on the track

This arrangement allows me to slide each hanger assembly along the mounting board or easily remove them as needs change. In the front of each hanger pair I mounted a "hook and eye" device for safety (actually a piece of 1/8" aluminum that retains the clamps when not in use and flips up for clamp removal