The Woodshop Shed

Cam Clamps

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


Last Saturday, LJ Kposty and I went to the Great Lakes Woodworking Festival in Adrian, Michigan. They had a lot of demonstrations, vendor booths and hands on use of woodworking tools for beginners. In the tool building, Lie Nielsen had a booth with all their tools and one of them was a cam clamp. I could see a use for it because I always need a clamp with a deeper throat for glue ups and these can be made to most any dimension as long as the material will take the load. I made a sketch and came home and made two styles.The first one is a one piece body made from Osage Orange and with an aluminum bar with a brass stop in the end of it. I cut the slot for the cam with a router bit in the mill and cut the slots for the bar with the scroll saw and found that blade was not in good shape and it made a couple ugly holes… but I made them work. It is slightly mis-alligned but it clamps just fine. It has a 6” throat and clamps up to 8” wide. I used 1/8” roll pins to hold the bar in , for the cam pivot and at both sides of the bar slot for a bearing for the bar and to keep the wood from splitting. Lie Nielsen did the same.The second one is made from cherry ( just because I had a couple pieces of 3/8” cherry already planed and waiting to be a clamp!! It is a 3 piece body and I like this one better because it is easy to make and I may take the plan to school for a shop project next fall. It is also an 8 ” clamp with a 6” throat. I see the roll pins dent the cherry pretty easily but it holds in any position.The bodies are 1 1/8” x 1 1/2” by 8 1/4” long. The aluminum bar is 1/4” x1 1/8” The cherry bar is 3/8” x 1 1/4”Cheers, Jim

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