BIG handscrews?

[Andy Maldoror]

i picked up 18" and 24" handscrews at an auction this past week and i don't know if they belong in a woodshop or on a farm.

does anyone here use these larger handscrews and what have you found to be worthy applications for such big ol' clamps.

andy

[David Thompson 27577]

i picked up 18" and 24" handscrews at an auction this past week and i don't know if they belong in a woodshop or on a farm.

does anyone here use these larger handscrews and what have you found to be worthy applications for such big ol' clamps.

andy

Just last week, I was routing the female sockets for some sliding dovetails. These slots were in the edge of a board that was 1-1/2" X 6". Obviously, the 1-1/2" edge was not going to do well at supporting a router for such an operation.

So, I used the biggest handscrew that I had, and clamped it to the board -- so that the faces of the clamp were parallel with, and flush with, the board edge. Now the surface that the router would ride on was almost tripled in width.

FWIW, I also created a pattern from 1/2" ply for the dovetail slots. I used additional clamps to hold the pattern to the faces of the handscrew. I then routed the slots with a bearing-guided bit. With such perfectly held positioning, I had no worries about the resulting slots. They were perfect.