Give Your Pipe Clamps Limitless Attain

Wire system provides pipe clamps limitless attain

As soon as whereas I used to be gluing a number of items of edging onto an octagonal desk, the crisscrossing pipe clamps stored interfering with one another. A couple of years later I discovered a method to adapt the clamps that not solely solves my authentic downside however, extra importantly, lets me lengthen the clamps to virtually any size. This methodology permits just some clamps to exchange an entire stack of pipes of various lengths. And the entire system suits right into a shoebox.

I mounted the jaw assemblies from the unique clamps on shorter pipe sections and linked these with 1/8-in.-thick metal cable. Then I connected cable stops at intervals alongside the wire, locking them in place by swaging them (flattening them barely) with hammer blows. To seize the stops, I turned wooden plugs that match into the ends of the pipes. The size of the clamps is adjusted by sliding a cable cease behind a plug after which tightening the clamp screw as regular.

I minimize the plugs from a 3/4-in.-dia. dowel and turned their smaller diameter on my lathe. Then I drilled a gap by the center of every plug and stood it on finish to chop the slot on the bandsaw. If you happen to don’t have a lathe, run a centered screw into the top of the plug, minimize off its head, chuck the screw in a drill press, and use a file to scale back the diameter.

I used outdated garage-door cable for my clamps, however I like to recommend that you just use new stainless-steel cable. You will discover it on Amazon, together with the “steel-cable stops,” that are made from aluminum and are additionally known as “crimping stops.” The size of the cable is as much as you.

The pipes are 12 in. lengthy, threaded on each ends, and bought as “pipe nipples.” The size provides you loads of room to slip the mounted clamp jaw backwards and forwards.

—Richard Tendick, Lakeville, Minn.

Pipe clamp ideas and methods

Contemplating its versatility, Mike Farrington thinks the pipe clamps are an underrated, but cost-effective, device.

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