Clamp Rack Wall Rebuild

My son, Glenn, informed me that I had outgrown my clamps storage racks and that I had a real mess (come on, did he think I didn't know that). Anyway he came down and we made new clamp racks with room to grow. For those of you who remember Igor I say, “Thank goodness Igor was not here.” However, he could have had a ball with this.

Clamp Rack 2015 (1).jpg

Actually there was a clamp rack prior to this pic. The clamps hung on the “ladder” (made of electric conduit) that shows on the left. So here is the idea we came up with:

Clamp Rack 2015 (2).jpg

In order to make the slots, we needed a row of holes. In order to make the row of holes we made a sort of jig out of one of the drill press table inserts:

Clamp Rack 2015 (3).JPG

We used some scrap to get the alignment right and then started drilling holes in the real thing:

Clamp Rack 2015 (4).JPG . Clamp Rack 2015 (5).JPG
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Now we needed to make slots (no not the Las Vegas kind) our of the holes. First we setup a sacrificial fence with a key. For the key we used a brass setup block:

Clamp Rack 2015 (8).jpg

Then we burn up some scrap to get the spacing fine tuned for the slots.

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cont'd . . . .
 
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Here's a shot of the keeper stock and the key again along with a view of the sac-fence on the sled.

Clamp Rack 2015 (11).jpg . Clamp Rack 2015 (16).jpg

Occasionally a bit of adjustment was required. Fortunately Glenn had watched a Garret Hack video in which he demonstrated his 'micro-adjuster'.

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Yep . . . perfect.

Clamp Rack 2015 (12).jpg

With such repetitve work a break every now and then for a little rock-n-roll helped us keep our sanity . . . clamp-rack-guitar and clamp-rack-keyboard anyone?

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The slots were too narrow for any router bit we had on hand so, a round grinding stone served to bevel the edges of the slots. This keeps the veneer from shredding while clamps are going in and out of the rack.

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Once they were all up on the wall, it looks like so:

Clamp Rack 2015 (18).jpg . Clamp Rack 2015 (19).jpg

Like Glenn, I store my longer clamps on these little plywood racks that hang from the rafters. these are clamps I use very seldom. When I do use them I use several so it is not an issue to step up and bring a few down for use. This also keep a large section of wall clear for other use.

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A couple of regular raconteurs, good to have some fun :D

I don't think I could spare the wall space, what with the brewery along one wall and the stairs along the other but man that looks nice and easy to get to.
 
Ryan,

In the past Glenn has used "long" rods sticking out from the wall. Each rod holding 7 clamps. It takes up less room and is not quite so handy as what I have. However, if each rod has similar clamps you have access to a variety of clamps. I'm not sure that makes sense so I will try again. Suppose you have 7 types of clamps. If you have 7 rods with 7 clamps each, you have stored 49 clamps. If you want four 6" Bessies you go to the rod containing seven 6" Bessies and peel off the first four; each one of these is readily available with out moving any other clamps' opening drawers or cupboards...Just something to think about.

Enjoy,
JimB
 
Yep makes total sense Jim, I'm actually using a portamate lumber rack to hang (many of) my clamps from (got it on sale at 50% off intending to use it for lumber but it was looking pretty lightweight for that so built my own lumber rack and.. welp here we are): http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=67432

The long ones lay across the top row and the shorter ones are hung off the lower rungs pretty much as you describe.

Your setup is - as you note much much prettier :D
 
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