small parallel action clamps?

[roger wiegand]

I'm at the beginning of gluing up a couple hundred small organ pipes. My regular clamps seem to do fine with the bigger pipes but with these little guys (3 to 8" in length, 1.5 to 3 cm on a side) the twist from a C clamp or the slight movement of the pads relative to each other with the Quick-Grip type clamps that are very convenient for this sort of thing push the parts out of alignment by a half or full millimeter. They can also introduce a slight racking, despite an internal spacer block. I'm wondering if there exists a very small, parallel action clamp that would do better for this task? I need to be able to clamp in two dimensions at once, gluing the sides to the back and foot block to the back and sides while maintaining a precise internal dimension, which precludes a number of ideas I've had. It would be great if they were not too expensive so I could afford to do more than one or two pipes at a time.

None of the tricks I'm used to using to keep glue-ups aligned seem to be applicable with these tiny, thin pieces of wood.

I'm tempted to try hot glue and just hold them by hand until the glue sets up, but I can't have any squeeze out on the inside corners of the pipes as that would interfere with the stoppers, and I haven't figured out how to quickly apply hot glue with that level of control. Using Titebond I apply a thin coat, smooth it off with a finger, and then squeegee what will be the inside corner with my finger so there's very little glue close to the edge-- hot glue would gel before I got that done.

[roger wiegand]

Here's some pictures of what I'm doing now, starting with the parts

IMG_6712.jpeg
As they are to be assembled:

IMG_6713.jpeg
Clamping the first dimension, with internal space block in place:

IMG_6714.jpeg


Clamping the second dimension with a caul:

IMG_6716.jpeg

[roger wiegand]

Don't know why I didn't find them before, but the 6" Bessey Uniklamps may be what I'm looking for, at ~$100 for four clamps this is going to be a long slow process, I'm afraid.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Uniklamps is what I came here to say. Sounds like you have found them. They are great for smaller, more delicate clamping with less clamping force needed.

[Bill Dufour]

google "machinist clamp". these are just smaller, all steel versions of wood working parallel clamps. Sides should be machined or ground at right angles to the jaw faces.
Bill D.

https://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Tools...81531835&psc=1

I see a set of 4 on ebay 6 inch size for $39, delivered

[Cameron Wood]

These could be good:

https://www.amazon.com/KAKURI-Woodwo...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[Bill Dufour]

Note that the machinists clamps can be used off parallel as well. That may or may not be an advantage.
BilL D.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Clamps? We don' need no steenkin' clamps. We needs the omnipresent scrap bin.

I'd anchor two 1-1/2" thick x 12" long chunks of wood to a flat surface [BB?]. Chunks jointed flat.

Then I'd take another piece of that, and cut some 3" pieces.

THEN I'd make some short wedge sets. 2" long should do.

So now I've got a pair of fixed chunks. Build out from Chunk 1. Put the 3" pieces against the pipe assembly, and use the wedges between those and the 2d anchored chunk. Tap-tap-tap. come back when glue sets

I can visualize it better than 'splain it. Can do a pdf off of AutoCad itr you're interested

I don't "get" the 2d dimension in mental focus, but it all has to work the same way. The 3" chunks segmented caul[s].

[Jim Becker]

Don't know why I didn't find them before, but the 6" Bessey Uniklamps may be what I'm looking for, at ~$100 for four clamps this is going to be a long slow process, I'm afraid.

I have some of the UniClamps and like them for small jobs like you want to do. They are not necessarily "true parallel" clamps, but at the clamping pressure one would normally use them, they work just fine. I actually want more of them, honestly.

[Bradley Gray]

I've had good luck using go-bars to glue the hollow stems of the music stands I make. The go-bars are 1/2 x 7/8 x 78" to fit my bench and ceiling height. I have also used them to assemble small band sawn boxes, instrument tops and backs and soundboard bracing. I have about 60 of them, mostly hickory.

clamping bracket go bars.jpg

[Frederick Skelly]

The guys have already given you a bunch of good ideas. I'll throw in an out of the box idea just to round out the list: surgical tubing might work in conjunction with other ideas. LINK I find this stuff useful in a lot of situations.

YMMV.
Fred

[Kent A Bathurst]

The guys have already given you a bunch of good ideas. I'll throw in an out of the box idea just to round out the list: surgical tubing might work in conjunction with other ideas. LINK I find this stuff useful in a lot of situations.

YMMV.
Fred

I use it for slingshots.

[roger wiegand]

I'll experiment more with the sliding wedge idea. It seems that anything that involves any movement against the pipe parts causes them to slip a bit-- I'm not used to working in a system where I'm told tenths of a mm matter.

[Edward Weber]

Have you tried a faster setting Glue, like Titebond QUICK & THICK or Instant Bond
http://www.titebond.com/all/glues

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'll experiment more with the sliding wedge idea. It seems that anything that involves any movement against the pipe parts causes them to slip a bit-- I'm not used to working in a system where I'm told tenths of a mm matter.

Sometimes I use double-faced tape to slap a hunk of sandpaper on the back of the wedge that goes against the target face. Requires fewer cuss words.

I don't stock adhesive-backed sandpaper - but I'm never out of double-faced tape or Genuine Blue Tape.