Dennis McCullen
01-22-2018, 9:16 AM
I picked up a 5 ft 3/4" pipe clamp at a thrift store a week or so ago that had the orange Pony fixtures attached. I was curious at first about the light weight of the assembly and found the pipe to be non-magnetic. I then researched the inner and outer diameters. The pipe seemed fairly rigid and turned out to be Schedule 40 aluminum pipe. I was very surprised that a search on a few woodworking sites turned up almost nothing, positive or negative, about using Al pipe. Black pipe vs galvanized ad nauseum, but virtually nothing about Al.
I found a local jobber handling the pipe and bought 40" pieces as well as a couple of the H. F. pipe clamp fixtures. The knock I had seen only occasionally on the fixtures is a rough finish, but I could tell the two I purchased were very well finished. Most of the pipe clamps I've had around are the toothed pawl type, sold by Sears several years ago, and I liked the clutch type on my "new-to-me" thrift store clamp.
In this particular instance, the two sets of clamp fixtures from the Big Chinese box tool store were very well finished and all they needed was a spritz of dry lube on the threads. The aluminum, pipe I bought was not all that expensive, running about $8 each, some of which was the cut and thread charge, $3.75. Additionally, I live in a rural location and this one shop selling the pipe is the only outlet and is generally known to be pricey. I will say that the clutch-type clamp ends bite into the aluminum a little, but it should take hundreds of uses before the pipe is worn enough to merit replacement. When I assembled fixtures to pipe, I used a few layers of Teflon tape in hopes to prevent a galvanic response between dissimilar metals in case I ever want to remove the fixture heads.
For about $16 each I have a new pair of pipe clamps that seem very rigid ( or rigid enough for me). I have lots of iron pipe clamps of varying lengths around that sometimes get used in my construction efforts around here, but I'm trying to get away from such heavy clamps for case and panel work. I feel sure the light (lighter) weight clamps will serve me well.
I found a local jobber handling the pipe and bought 40" pieces as well as a couple of the H. F. pipe clamp fixtures. The knock I had seen only occasionally on the fixtures is a rough finish, but I could tell the two I purchased were very well finished. Most of the pipe clamps I've had around are the toothed pawl type, sold by Sears several years ago, and I liked the clutch type on my "new-to-me" thrift store clamp.
In this particular instance, the two sets of clamp fixtures from the Big Chinese box tool store were very well finished and all they needed was a spritz of dry lube on the threads. The aluminum, pipe I bought was not all that expensive, running about $8 each, some of which was the cut and thread charge, $3.75. Additionally, I live in a rural location and this one shop selling the pipe is the only outlet and is generally known to be pricey. I will say that the clutch-type clamp ends bite into the aluminum a little, but it should take hundreds of uses before the pipe is worn enough to merit replacement. When I assembled fixtures to pipe, I used a few layers of Teflon tape in hopes to prevent a galvanic response between dissimilar metals in case I ever want to remove the fixture heads.
For about $16 each I have a new pair of pipe clamps that seem very rigid ( or rigid enough for me). I have lots of iron pipe clamps of varying lengths around that sometimes get used in my construction efforts around here, but I'm trying to get away from such heavy clamps for case and panel work. I feel sure the light (lighter) weight clamps will serve me well.