Clamp Rack Information

[Jim Becker]

Someone recently asked about my clamp racks that I use for the K-Bodies, UniClamps, Tradesmans, etc. Below is a picture of how they are constructed. Dimensionally, they are 3" deep and 3"-4" tall and made of scrap 3/4" plywood. The slots for the clamps are made by drilling holes repeatedly across the top on the DP, evenly spaced at about 1.25-1.5" and then cutting the sides of the slots using the miter guage on the table saw. (guide lines are drawn to provide a reference for the blade and it's helpful to mark the TS table top for the cutter boundries. The hole size determines the slot width and should be appropriately sized for the particular clamps that you are going to support. While you "could" cut the slots with a dado setup, that would require having a very, very large spinning cutter raised up really high...something I'm not comfortable with...as the slots are probably about 1.75" "deep".

Assemble with glue and brads/nails (I usually use my 15 guage nailer for this) and then mount to the wall with 2" (min length) screws into the studs. Easy, quick and cheap. Look great, too. You can make them as long or short as you want or can fit in the given space. If you do really long, you may want to consider an intermediate support made the same way as the ends are shown.

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks Jim. It looks like a good, basic, and functional design.

[Mark Singer]

Jim,

It beats the 2x4 I've been using! Nice drawings too.

[Jim Becker]

Nice drawings too.
I tell you, Mark...in your copious free time you should really check out Sketchup! Here's an architectural example...our house as it is presently...took a couple of hours to draw (I'm still new to the program and had to take some time to make "corrections" due to screwups along the way)

[Jamie Buxton]

Jim, how come you go to the work of making all those teeth? If you just had a 1x4 or so, sitting with the 4 dimension vertical, you could just hook the clamps over it. The teeth only serve to separate the clamps -- which don't care if they're packed tightly or not -- and take up space which could be used to store more clamps!

[Jim Young]

You could also cut the slots with a bandsaw, just mark a line from the edge to the hole, then follow the line with the BS blade.

[Mark Singer]

Jim,

Nice drawings...Skethup looks great! Ryan just gave me ArchiCad ($3500!) and I am still improving at Turbo and Autocad...so I have my Cad hands full!

[Jim Becker]

Jim, how come you go to the work of making all those teeth? If you just had a 1x4 or so, sitting with the 4 dimension vertical, you could just hook the clamps over it. The teeth only serve to separate the clamps -- which don't care if they're packed tightly or not -- and take up space which could be used to store more clamps!Jamie, I understand what you are saying but there is a specific reason I designed the clamp rack this way...it is a more positive method for retaining the clamps on the wall. Each clamp has it's place and the fingers help keep you from knocking one off and bonking you in the head (DAMHIKT!!) when you pull down another. As to "space"...properly spacing the slots makes for no waste of space. The picture below illustrates this. BTW, I prefer to store my clamps in the "fully open" configuration and these racks work well for that.

BTW, I forgot to mention in my original post that slightly angling the top surface towards the wall also contributes to the stability of the clamps hanging on the system. Just a couple of degrees is "perfect" for that.

[Steve Clardy]

I made my first clamps racks probably 20 years ago, alomost exactly like yours.
The only difference I do is, when ripping out the back board that is screwed to the wall, I rip the top edge at about a 5 degree angle. This lets the top board with the cutouts sit an a slight angle upwards away from the wall.
Keeps the clamps from creeping off the rack. I used to have my clamps mounted above an old shaky lathe I had, and the clamps would vibrate off.:eek:

Steve:)

[Pete Rosenbohm]

Jim sure looks like a clamp gloat to me:D :D :D , Happy Thanksgiving from down in the Bayou Country:)

[Rich Konopka]

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone !!!


Jim:

You have a Nice Rack there :eek:

Seriously, I have been using Sketchup this week and almost have used up my 8 hour trial. It is a real easy program. I had trialed DesginCad and it was really diffcult. I have had some great help along the way. !! It is helping me with my shop layout.

The drawings of the Becker household you have posted are real nice. The work you did is real cool I like the shadows. I havn't gotten there yet. Keep up the good work.


Jim, there seems to be something missing????

Where's the shop??? :confused:

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Rich beat me to the punch on that line. Very nice idea indeed. I hang mine on a 2x2 right now, but when the shop gets a redo this winter (I hope), I'll make a few of those. Thanks for the plans!!

[Jim Becker]

Jim, there seems to be something missing????

Where's the shop??? Good catch...I just didn't get to it yet. I have some interior shop drawings, but they may be in a different scale than these renderings which are "close" to actual by feet and inches in the program.

I plan on using those renderings for discussion when we start working with an architect on a potential addition behind the great room. (That's the part of the building on the right side when you look at the front and top views; on the left on the back view) The whole drawing is only approximate in dimensions but perfectly good for conversational purposes...and when you use the "extend lines" and shadow feature of SketchUp!, it really makes it look like a pro did the work rather than some shlub like me!! :D

BTW, Dr SWMBO would point out that it's the Becker/Evans household!! :o

[Christian Aufreiter]

Nice rack, Jim.
I use a similar design but don't have so many clamps yet :)
Honestly, I have to admit that my rack appears to be overloaded but it's solid enough so far.

Regards,

Christian

[Terry Hatfield]

j,

Mine are alot like yours. I cut the slots with the dado blade and a extension fence on my miter gauge. It's the easiest way I could figure out to cut them.

t


<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/CR5.jpg">

[Ernie Kuhn]

I'm in total envy of those with a large enough shop to have fixed clamp rack storage. Everything, just about, has to be mobile for me. I got these 3 under-desk cabinet units from an office excess at $2 ea. Used 2' x 2' 1" thick ply between each unit and slotted for clamps as you can see. The other side is the same configuration. The back of the unit is where I mounted my vacuum pump and controls to power vacuum chuck for the lathe. And, of course, its on wheels.
Ernie

[Jim Becker]

Ernie, that's a wonderful solution!

[Frank Pellow]

Very nice Ernie. I really like it when someone like you comes up with a great design to utilize what is readily available to them at a good price.

[Ernie Kuhn]

Jim, Frank,
I think this falls under, "Neccessity is the mother of invention"? I'm sure as time goes on, I'll have to add more clamp storage but for now...its OK.
Ernie

[Andy Henriksen]

You all have more invested in clamps than I have in my entire tool collection! I'm constantly struggling with the catch-22 of not being able to build anything because of tool limitations, yet not being able to justify new tools because I never build anything. Sorry for the threadjack/vent. I just hope you guys regularly remind yourselves how lucky you are!

[Alan Turner]

While I would love to have all of my clamps in one place, my space limitations do not permit. Thus, they are here, there , and yon -- where ever there is a bit of space.

In some respects, this works out well. Above my bench, and to the rear a bit, on the left side (in a joist bay), are 8 "F" clamps (12"; 8", and 6"), and on the wall to the right of the bench are more "F" clamps, 6" heavy, 6" light, and 12" heavy and light. Then, on the wall to the left are more "F" clamps.
All of the bar clamps are in inconvenient places because they are used less often, and only for planned gluing operations. If it weren't for joist bays, I would need another storage room, I think.
Alan

[Dan Gill]

This kind of rack is handy, but I've always thought it was a "space intensive" way of storing clamps. I just use heavy duty pegs and put several clamps on each peg. I use two for Bessey K-bodies, one in front and one in back of the bar. I haven't had one fall yet.

[Jim Fancher]

This is becoming a nice "show us your rack" thread. :D

Thanks for all of the ideas! Keep the pics coming. I need to make a rack VERY soon.