Workers Of Wood

We've always recommended "you can't have enough clamps"...maybe...?

This gentleman doesn't suggest not using clamps but rather recommends alternatives to having LOTS of clamps...

He's thinking you only need about 5 clamps...!

...what do you think...?

Rabbet joint - change to rebated rabbet and use your pinner to clamp..
M&T - make the fit a scant fuzz looser... glue up... press the joint together manually and toenail the joint w/ your pinner...
Mortise - toenail the joint w/ your pinner through the underside of the perpendicular board/shelf......
Face frame - dado/rabbet the back side of the pieces, glue and toenail from the backside.. if pull is needed use pocket screws sparingly...
Back panels - VT panels slid into receiver grooves (glue optional) and held w/ pins pinned on the perimeter. If its a big box mount the panel to the dividers or fixed shelves w/ truss headed screws...
.

Pocket screws.
Herb

all those nails he installed are fine if you are going to paint...

I also us my brad nailer, which is basically the same thing, they have smaller heads than finish nails and counter sink in one operation.
Herb

I'm partial to my 23GA pinner...

I'm sure I have at least 100 clamps, every type he showed plus a few. I use them a lot. I agree with him saying that the Jorgensen's are the best ones. I have 4 Bessey K bodies and I hate them and only use them when I have to. Lately I've collected a half dozen or so aluminum box beam type clamps. I like them because they are so light you can easily one hand them. Great for when you need one hand to hold the piece in place while you get the first clamp on. The trigger handle clamps are good that way too. I use lots of screws where they won't show and brads and pins where they will. If I'm doing trim that I know will eventually need to come off for repainting or whatever I'll drive in the shiny finish nails with a hammer and nail set. It's easier to get the trim off without breaking it with them. Everything has a time and a place.

Herb Stoops wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:37 pm Pocket screws.
Herb

Me too Herb, I always use pocket screws when possible.


Bushwhacker

Cherryville Chuck wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:46 am I'm sure I have at least 100 clamps, every type he showed plus a few. I use them a lot. I agree with him saying that the Jorgensen's are the best ones. I have 4 Bessey K bodies and I hate them and only use them when I have to. Lately I've collected a half dozen or so aluminum box beam type clamps. I like them because they are so light you can easily one hand them. Great for when you need one hand to hold the piece in place while you get the first clamp on. The trigger handle clamps are good that way too. I use lots of screws where they won't show and brads and pins where they will. If I'm doing trim that I know will eventually need to come off for repainting or whatever I'll drive in the shiny finish nails with a hammer and nail set. It's easier to get the trim off without breaking it with them. Everything has a time and a place.

Every time I get into a lumber store I end up at the display of clamps.
I have several and many different types and sizes, but I am always looking for a couple of new ones.

I recently ( well I began a year ago) build a wooden floor lamp.
It took strips of cedar glued into bundles of 8 , 1/8 inch strips to twist around the out side of the stand. It has three of these twisted bundles.
I could not get the bundles to twist once they had dried.
I have a section of an old 12 inch wooden column. I used that to twist the bundles around starting at one spot on the top and ending all the way around the column at the opposite end. I had to hustle to get them twisted and clamped into position before the wood glue set up.
I used almost every clamp I had to get them all 3 mounted properly on the column.
After a week in the clamps, I took them off and attempted to wrap them around the lamp stand. They kept springing back to try to become the original stack of strips.
I finally after many attempts, got them all 3 wrapped on the wooden column.
I left it that way for nearly a year.
After our 56 day trip around the US this spring, I took them out of the clamps thinking, "if this did not work this time, I would trash the whole project." It took a lot of work and clamps but I finally got it put together.
And now I have all my clamps back.

Bushwhacker

Back many years ago, when I had retired from the Army, I was living in a rural area of Texas. A lady ask me about building her a set of kitchen cabinets.
First I had to move a bath room and tear out a wall to extend the long narrow kitchen she had.
Plus tear out the wall between the old kitchen and the adjacent living room so they would have access to the counter top and the upper cabinets from both sides.
She wanted cabinets on three walls of the new kitchen. The one exterior wall had a large window and she wanted to keep that so they could sit there at a small table to eat meals.
Then I got busy building the cabinets.
I built the carcasses and used pocket screws for the rails and stiles.
I built 26 different doors for the whole kitchen. Several of different sizes.
I made the drawers by routing long strips of wood for the raised panel doors and 45 ing the corners with a hand saw miter box.. I hand routed all the panels and fitted them together with wood glue.
I placed them on the rough tops of the lower cabinets and nailed strips off wood on the sides of the doors and tightened them with wedges.
I had "NO" clamps.
I also built 16 drawers and made raised panel fronts for them using the same methods I did for the doors.
Took a long time. They lived in the house for the whole build.
The only tools I had were a power drill, skill saw, my old Craftsman table saw and my Craftsman router. I bought the bits as I needs them.
I worked on two home made saw horses and stored my tools in a shed out back each night.
I showed up in the mornings worked all day ate my lunch in the back yard and stayed home when it rained.

I look around my shop now and wonder how I did it back then.
Today I am working on a small roll around table for Sandra. I have used the table say, router table, power drill stand, sanders, clamps, hand drills, center punches. Did I mention clamps?
In the evenings, I shut off the lights and roll down the electric garage door and go in the house.

Bushwhacker

I gave a try to making curved arch rafters for tarp type buildings. I had the curved forms and was using 3/4" by 2" strips of D fir but around the knots or grain changes the wood wasn't dead flat so they didn't bend uniformly and would leave gaps between layers that had to be clamped. I only had to leave mine on for 4-6 hours as a rule but it took a lot of clamps for 2 jigs.

The glue was also an issue with it drying too fast to work at a comfortable pace. I soon came to the conclusion that it was only viable as a business if I spent a whole bunch of money on a glue machine to glue up the strips and a more sophisticated jig with pneumatic or hydraulic clamping.

Bushwhacker wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 11:51 am I look around my shop now and wonder how I did it back then.

I always carry three small clamps in my drill/driver bag...they're in there to give me the extra hand for some drilling. But I only started carrying the clamps just last year when I rebuilt my radar arch.

I wonder how I drilled before I dedicated those three clamps...LOL...

I know I have 150, and it might be closer to two hundred. In spite of that, I find myself eyeballing yet another band clamp or the new Bessy's you turn to clamp.

I have no qualms about buying Harbor Freight ones too. They are great for dedicated projects, like my router dado jig, which uses only one built in clamp I installed by cutting back a 6" F clamp. Then there are the two F clamps that got cut up for use on a Workmate I pull out for certain projects.

I guess I could count the wood clamps I just posted in the JIG section too.

SIDE NOTE: I won nice clamps from Bessy three years in a row. My run only stopped after Fakebook banned me for life.

KellyCraig wrote: ↑Fri Apr 14, 2023 6:14 pm I know I have 150, and it might be closer to two hundred. In spite of that, I find myself eyeballing yet another band clamp or the new Bessy's you turn to clamp.

I have no qualms about buying Harbor Freight ones too. They are great for dedicated projects, like my router dado jig, which uses only one built in clamp I installed by cutting back a 6" F clamp. Then there are the two F clamps that got cut up for use on a Workmate I pull out for certain projects.

I guess I could count the wood clamps I just posted in the JIG section too.

SIDE NOTE: I won nice clamps from Bessy three years in a row. My run only stopped after Fakebook banned me for life.

I'm somewhere between 100 to 150. I thought I finally had enough and then the light weight aluminum beam clamps came out and I decided a needed a variety of those. They are the only type you can manage in long lengths one-handed. Saying I have enough clamps feels a little like a blasphemy. I'll probably make a liar out of myself for saying it anyway.

GO HARBOR FREIGHT!
Herb