PIPE CLAMP

Since “you can never have too many clamps”, I knew I should make some more pipe clamps. I’ve never made my own pipe clamps, but there have been times that I’ve wanted some deep reach pipe clamps, so I figured I’d try one to see what I thought of it.

I cut a ¾” coupling in half and epoxied it on the back side of the clamp board. I drilled a 1 ¼” hole just deep enough for the coupling. Then finished drilling the rest of the way through with a 1 1/8” bit.

I tapped the wood for the ½” all thread.

On the sliding section, I drilled a 1 1/8” hole at a 5° angle.

I found occasionally the block would slip on the ¾” pipe. So I ended up tapping a 1/4-20 thread in the block, for a set screw, which took care of the slipping problem. I will be picking up some 1/4″ set screws, 1″ long, so that the screw head won’t be sticking out of the block. I want to be able to set the block, flat on the workbench, without the screw head sticking out.

I wanted to come up with a pivoting push point, since I couldn’t guarantee that the sliding section would always be at 90° to the pipe. So I cut a flat side on a ¾” dowel in the bandsaw.

The dowel then, allowed the push point to pivot easily.

To allow the head on the all thread to swivel, I used a 1/2” nut with a roll pin though it.

This pushes against a washer inside the round head. I used a 1” forstner bit for the inside of the head. Drill the 1” hole deep enough for the head to swivel around a little. A 1 ¾” hole saw to cut the outside diameter worked the best for me.