Storing clamps

[Ellen Benkin]

I have an ever growing collection of clamps which has outgrown the storage system I built for them years ago. I currently store them on a wall and want to continue doing that since floor space in my garage is at a premium. I recently got an email from Woodpeckers for their new clamp "rack-it" system which looks like a good solution for me. I hesitate to go with Woodpeckers only because I often think their products are very overpriced but so far they are the only ones to come up with this storage system. Has anyone tried it? Or does anyone have any comments on its design?

Thanks for the help.

Ellen

[George Yetka]

I have a wall of french cleats I find If i take a 3/4" x5" x 30" piece of ply with 2 pieces 6x13" screwed to it. it will hold 6 parralel clamps. so I add them as i need to.
for f clamps I have a piece of 3/4 ply maybe 30" x 40" with a bunch of 3/4 x 2x 10" pieces of oak pocket screwed to it. If you lay it out raight you can get a lot on this.
as for the spring and quick bar clamps I built a box 3'longx4"wide x6"deep. I have it hung vertically and can get a buttload of spring clamps up one side and quick clamps up the other
I think the woodpecker product will be limiting

[Cary Falk]

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.

[Yonak Hawkins]

If the studs are exposed on your garage wall, as the Woodpecker product page shows, couldn't you do pretty much the same thing with 1/4" pieces of plywood attached to each side of a stud ?

[Matthew Curtis]

I took a piece of plywood an attached shelf brackets to it. Two brackets close together so that my clamp will slide between them similar to the Woodpeckers system. I can fit six of my parallel clamps in each set of brackets. I then spaced out several more sets of brackets, then attached the plywood rack to the wall. works great. Brackets are cheap enough.

[Matthew Curtis]

Here is an option

https://www.wallcontrol.com/clamp-rack-brackets-clamp-storage-for-pegboard-clamp-wall-organizers-4-to-12-inch-shelf-bracket-pair-clamp-bracket-pair/

[glenn bradley]

Cleat wall and shop made fixtures.

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[Matt Day]

I just finished my clamp storage wall in my new shop, but am out of town so can’t get a pic right now.

I used Shop Fox metal clamp racks sold on amazon, about $35 for 3 racks of varying sizes (prices fluctuate of course on amazon). https://www.amazon.com/Shop-Fox-D4333-Clamp-3-Pack/dp/B00CHZ9XS6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=16G1IFJ5V0XHR&keywords=shop+fox+clamp+rack&qid=1552514833&s=gateway&sprefix=shop+fox+clamp&sr=8-1

I like shop projects and all, but simply buying these and fastening to concrete was a lot easier than making them, especially since my shop isn’t fully operational yet.

[john bateman]

I bought a 5ft length of 3/4" black pipe and hung it from a ceiling joist with some eye bolts. It holds about 40 F-clamps and cost hardly anything.

[John TenEyck]

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

[johnny means]

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.

[John TenEyck]

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.

You earn your living doing this, right? I don't, and I concluded from the OP's post she doesn't either. But I could be wrong.


John

[Matt Day]

Just like its nice to have the right tool for the job, I like having the right clamp for the job.

Sure you could use a 36” f clamp to glue a couple of 3/4” pieces of stock together, but it’s nice to have 6” ones. Same goes for parallel clamps. Sometimes you need a deep threat f clamp. Sometimes you need to use a parallel clamp as a spreader. I don’t see any argument against having too many clamps.

[Darcy Warner]

All laying on skids, plenty of room now to leave them like that.

[johnny means]

You earn your living doing this, right? I don't, and I concluded from the OP's post she doesn't either. But I could be wrong.


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

[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.:D

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.

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[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. https://beta-static.photobucket.com/images/h151/derekarita1/0/281fe57e-6f5e-4598-a17b-151e7f664924-original.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://beta.photobucket.com/u/derekarita1/p/281fe57e-6f5e-4598-a17b-151e7f664924)

[Alan Lightstone]

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

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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.

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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.

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[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

[Charles Lent]

I too, stack my parallel clamps and pipe clamps outward from the wall. Each slot holds a different length clamp and holds 8 per slot. My "A" shaped brackets were made from 2 X 4 and 2 X 6 framing lumber with them made in the shape of a shelf bracket, but with a 45 degree brace underneath. Biscuits and glue were used for their assembly. I made a very heavy duty French Cleat system out of 2 X 4 to attach these to the wall using 3 1/2" screws through the French Cleat and into the wall studs. Each "A" bracket is also screwed to the French cleat board after it is positioned for the needed space from the adjacent bracket. 48 + parallel clamps in one place is very heavy, but then I also have about 20 + pipe clamps there too. This rack system was built about 17 years ago because I was running out of shop wall space and it has been trouble free since I began using it. Below the shorter parallel clamps I have places to store "C" clamps, "F" clamps, and band clamps, so my total wall space for clamp storage is only about 40" wide. My 2 screw type wooden clamps of various sizes are all clamped to the edge of a window frame. I only have about a dozen of them, so if I get more I'll need a bigger window. The flat aluminum edge guide clamps are all hanging in slots in a kind-of shelf bracket that's attached to the relatively unused 4' wide barn style door. The more often used 2nd of these two doors has two Workmates hanging from brackets on it, one above the other.

Charley

[Charles Lent]

I too, stack my parallel clamps and pipe clamps outward from the wall. Each slot holds a different length clamp and holds 8 per slot. My "A" shaped brackets were made from 2 X 4 and 2 X 6 framing lumber with them made in the shape of a shelf bracket, but with a 45 degree brace underneath. Biscuits and glue were used for their assembly. I made a very heavy duty French Cleat system out of 2 X 4 to attach these to the wall using 3 1/2" screws through the French Cleat and into the wall studs. Each "A" bracket is also screwed to the French cleat board after it is positioned for the needed space from the adjacent bracket. 48 + parallel clamps in one place is very heavy, but then I also have about 20 + pipe clamps there too. This rack system was built about 17 years ago because I was running out of shop wall space and it has been trouble free since I began using it. Below the shorter parallel clamps I have places to store "C" clamps, "F" clamps, and band clamps, so my total wall space for clamp storage is only about 40" wide. My 2 screw type wooden clamps of various sizes are all clamped to the edge of a window frame. I only have about a dozen of them, so if I get more I'll need a bigger window. The flat aluminum edge guide clamps are all hanging in slots in a kind-of shelf bracket that's attached to the relatively unused 4' wide barn style door. The more often used 2nd of these two doors has two Workmates hanging from brackets on it, one above the other.

Charley

[Matt Day]

Here’s mine. It’s behind a door so keeping it close to the wall was a design constraint.

[Jim Tobias]

Got these racks from Duluth I believe. Anyways, they work great for clamps ad save lots of room. I several for all my clamps. https://beta-static.photobucket.com/images/h151/derekarita1/0/281fe57e-6f5e-4598-a17b-151e7f664924-original.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds (https://beta.photobucket.com/u/derekarita1/p/281fe57e-6f5e-4598-a17b-151e7f664924)

I have a number of these and they work perfectly for holding most all of my clamps. Very sturdy and secure.


I also have a couple of these to use for spring clamps of various sizes and smaller f-style clamps. they swivel allowing you to get the ones you need out easily
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B017IF5Y3W/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Jim

[Jim Becker]

I could be wrong, but I don't believe that Duluth offers those clamp/tool racks anymore but they are probably "out there" somewhere.

[mreza Salav]

As a side note, how come your clamps are so clean and with no sign of glue anywhere? My clamps (being Bessey/Jet/Pipe) all have signs of glue somewhere.
Once in a while I tend to clean them but still they look "used" and not brand new :confused:

[Chris Parks]

Lots of ideas here...https://www.google.com.au/search?q=woodworking+clamp+storage&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=opera&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwi57MvzvYrhAhUPHzQIHXsSA44QsAR6BAgDEAE&biw=1862&bih=956

[Paul Wunder]

This is the one that I built. I also put a "hook and eye" thingy made of 1/8th aluminum sheet in front of each section so the clamps don't wiggle forward and fall off.

I previously posted (#30) but I am adding the source video that I used as my plan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isFqZUPgHgI

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isFqZUPgHgI)