Thursday, October 4, 2018

Pipe Clamp Supports -- Tool Tip #20



One of the old saws of woodworking is that you can never have enough clamps. I will attest that this is certainly true despite owning a fair number of them, relying mostly on the inexpensive but powerful pipe clamps by Pony, Bessey, Harbor Freight, etc. If you've done more than two glue-ups with these you've already run across the issue of the tail end of the pipe falling and the jaws bucking up off the workbench. This is not a frustration, of course, when the clamp length is appropriate to the width of the glue-up, but during multiple glue-ups one migrates inevitably toward clamps too long for the job.



To control this little bucking bronco I always put a long strip of wood about 7/8” thick underneath all the ends of the hanging tails. This does the job nicely of keeping all the pipe clamps level and in a single plane so the boards can be laid in with no difficulty. I've thought of using pipe insulation placed on the tail for the same purpose, but such insulation is not thick enough. Too recently it occurred to me that your typical pool noodle would provide exactly the right thickness to keep the tail from falling. So now instead of a bunch of bucking broncos, we corral a well broke line of Ponies. Hope this helps.

(The astute observer will observe that the photos show a situation where the noodle was actually not needed, but I was nonetheless eager to share the use of my other noodle.)

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