Pipe Clamp holders adjustable even

[Gunny 56,570]

Had to move where I stored several pipe clamps I use alot to make room for a light over my toolbox.  No one size fits all on this job.  The 5 ft clamps are stored on this upper holder, non adjustable.  Max clamps with my pads on them is 12, and that is full.  

 

Began with a layout.  For this project I will be using some MDF and edge banding it with pine.  Why?  I had some on hand and this fit the bill.  

 

 

Next I loaded this up and left it overnight.

 

 

So now we have it all painted up and some Formica put on the top.

 

 

That done I moved on the the lower holder.  This one needs to be adjustable to so degree.

 

 

Now we hit a snag.  I put this bar across the wall and checked the electrical diagram the old owner left for me.  No wires in that corner where I am working, they are at the top.  WRONG.  Installed that 1 1/2 sq board all the way across and sank 3 inch screws into it in the corner.  Hit the power wire.  But did not touch anything else.  No breaker blew.  I found this when I went to use a outlet on opposite side of shop.  It was dead.  Tracking it back to between two outlets I saw that despite the diagram a wire must be in there,.

 

No pictures, phone was dead and I was kinda busy.  I took both side of that corner apart and found the wire.  Thankfully plenty of wire was left to put wire in new location.  So I made a new outlet in that corner and installed wire guards over the studs to prevent this from happening again.  Never know might need it.  With the walls now open I saw that the 24 inch studs had to be fixed.  Cut down some scraps and put them at 12 inches on center now.  Plenty of studs to hold stuff now! 

 

 

 

With all that back together I can now get back to work.  I want the fingers to slide along top bar.  So I installed some T track on the brace and then cut pieces of table saw t track to 1 1/2 inches for the fingers.  Maybe not how they thought it might get used, but it works.  The lower bar is 1/2 inch electrical conduit that is attached to the top of a brace.  This helps keep the fingers tracking but more important it is solid for the brace to come down and take the load of the clamps above.

 

 

 

 

I have 10 fingers to make, and edge band and then paint.  Took a week to get all that done and finally assembled.  Now we have all the pieces in place, fitting and ready to get to work.  Green tape is for next project, you gotta wait for that I just got started.

 

 

So after about 8 evenings and a solid day of work I have all my pipe clamps and other odd ball clamps in one place.

 

 

 

 

 

[lew 18,789]

Nice! I like the idea of "stackable" slots with more than one clamp at each location.

[Gunny 56,570]

5 minutes ago, lew said:

Nice! I like the idea of "stackable" slots with more than one clamp at each location.

Yeah that little piece of garage engineering took me a bit to figure out.  Then replicate, 10 times.  

[Al B 7,441]

I have a few pipe clamps from my welding days. They worked great for that purpose. but I've never really cared about using them for woodworking. But, when you need a loooooong clamp, the pipe clamp is a lifesaver.

[Gunny 56,570]

1 hour ago, Al B said:

I have a few pipe clamps from my welding days. They worked great for that purpose. but I've never really cared about using them for woodworking. But, when you need a loooooong clamp, the pipe clamp is a lifesaver.

That is where most of my clamps came from.  Guys would clean out a shop and find these and get rid of them, sometimes free.  I grew up using them and often use them for non woodworking jobs.  I know the bar clamps are the rage but my wallet says no they are not.    Even so I have some Rockler bar clamps I got at a woodworking show and like them.  I made clamp pads for my pipe clamps so all of them sit at the same height, and will not fall over.  This is a game changer, set up is much smoother.  Now those same clamp pads make the footprint of my clamps bigger and so they take up more space.  A give and take thing.  

[Cal 8,397]

Great job Gunny!

[Masonsailor 2,250]

Nicely done. Clamp are one of those things you can’t have enough of but without a rack they are constantly in the way. 
Paul

[Gerald 12,236]

Great use of unusable space

[p_toad 5,576]

my first pipe clamp was put together with a dowel since i had that and couldn't afford a piece of pipe at that time. 

[DuckSoup 3,715]

12 hours ago, p_toad said:

my first pipe clamp was put together with a dowel since i had that and couldn't afford a piece of pipe at that time. 

Necessity is the mother of inventions.