Quick and Dirty Panel Cramp

[Scrit]

I've mentioned these before elsewhere, but the other day I had the opportunity to photograph them in use. Faced with the problem of trying to temporarily cramp-up some extremely tall panels and without any long cramps to hand I had to make-up a few of these:



Simply a piece of 2 x 2in scrap with some blocks of 2 x 2in screwed on (three screws each, only one visible as the other two were driven from the other side). Saw off a wedge at one end then saw a couple of hardwood wedges to cramp-up. Very crude, but effective. I used to use similar items when I first started up, the main difference being that long arms had a series of holes drilled through them and that the wedge heads were fixed with a coach bolt, mudguard washer and wing nut. Happy days!



BTW, two "sash cramps" from scrap in 10 minutes is reasonably good value, I'd say.

Scrit

[colincott]

They are great Scrit

I will have to remember that one

[engineerone]

well done scrit, back to the old days ;D

only thing is most of us forget to take odd scraps on site,
and there may not be any lying around.

seems sensible to make a couple of the old style ones though if one knows what one is going to do.

paul

[dom]

Neat idea, thanks Scrit.

[paulchapman]

Great idea, Scrit Thanks for posting that.

Cheers

Paul

[fingers55]

Scrit - used to do much the same sort of thing on the bench top holding stuff against a dog at the vice end and a stop at the other. I found that the wedge worked much better if they were left rough sawn rather than planed - Rob

[staffie]

Scrit, great idea, i'm going to make a few for the workshop.

Thanks
jock

[mrgrimsdale]

Here's another on-site knocked up in minutes useful wedge device. OK I know (nearly) everybody's seen it before but there is always someone who hasn't.
It's a door holding prop. Really handy when you are planing an edge or fitting hinges. 2 even better. Or you could nail one on to your saw horse if you want to trim a board edge.

cheers
Jacob

[Dave S]

scrit said:

Very crude, but effective. I used to use similar items when I first started up, the main diffference being that long arms had a series of holes drilled through them and that the wedge heads were fixed with a coach bolt, mudguard washer and wing nut. Happy days!

BTW, two "sash cramps" from scrap in 10 minutes is reasonably good value, I'd say.

Great value - I don't have any long cramps myself so often use a similar trick. The other thing I've used several times (on a double headboard, for example) is I think called a Spanish Windlass? Some care needed to ensure it doesn't pull everything out of square, but it works a treat. Though, if I were doing this every day I think I'd want something a little more convenient

Dave

[Dave S]

mrgrimsdale said:

Here's another on-site knocked up in minutes useful wedge device. OK I know (nearly) everybody's seen it before but there is always someone who hasn't.

That'll be me then! ;D

I can think of several occasions where that would have been useful - the amount of time wasted faffing about with other methods I could have knocked up several of these!

Dave

[mailee]

Yep, got a couple of those in my tool box Jacob very handy little gadget for doors. As for Scrit's cramps I have used those when I have been assembling some of the larger gates I make. Isn't improvisation wonderful. ;D

[mrspanton]

I use a variaton of that every time I laminte chair seats, except I nail down two 4x2 or 3x2 battons (if its a 2 inch thick seat) whatever is around, onto the bench, parallel and about 3 or 4 inches wider apart than the total seat width. (thats what a bench is for, to get nailed now and again ;D) Then glue up the seat plank's (usually with with oak or ash pegs), drop in against one of the fixed battons, then 2 pair of folding wedges between the other batton and the seat pinches it all up nicely. If I remember I put a sheet of newspaper or bin bag to stop the seat sticking to the bench. I have 4 of the record screw up cramp heads but find the battons much easier. Only downside is that you cant use the bench while its curing, so I leave it overnight.
I have used the spanish windlass, you have to watch the rope doesnt cut in and mark an edge on a board, but I have used it to pull round shapes especially (eg drum shell's) together. It exerts a lot of pressure.
Good point scrit how you used only one screw on the wedge end so it can free float, less likely to exert uneven pressure and dent the work I would of used a soft wood wedge I make my wedges less steep than your example (about 1:8 or 1:9) I find they are less likely to pop, and are easier to drive in. Do you not find that only having one bar, (instead of one either side of the work) that it flexe's in a bit and tends to exert greater pressure on the side with the bar?
Your picture jacob reminds me of the benches the french clogmakers use to hold clogs for carving. where the clog blank sits in a housing held by a wedge, it helps them to get top speed as its so fast and simple. I prefer the fork in the end of the saw horse as its harder to lose the saw horse in a pile of shaving's. But these devices are time tested, easily made improvised or modified (you dont need the woodwork support industry to make one for you ;D)

[mrgrimsdale]

mailee said:

snip
Isn't improvisation wonderful. ;D

Yes and it saves a bomb ;D There are those who'd solve the same probs by referring to the catalogues, for things with brass knobs etc.
Site work is the mother of invention - and the last real refuge of hand tool use i.e. out of necessity rather than choice. Which is praps why some of us have a different view of hand tools compared to the collectors/polisher. 25 expensive planes no use on a building site - and you'd need a porter and an armed guard! So you discover that a jack and a block plane can do everything.
Same with sharpening - you can't take your Tormek, glass plates, reams of wet n dry etc. onto a site (you'd get laughed off) so you discover that an oil stone does it OK - and with a bit of practice it does it better!

cheers
Jacob

[TonyW]

Scrit & Jacob
Thanks for those interesting tips. I am one of those mentioned who had not seen these before and also one of those that looks in the catalogues for "things with brass knobs on" . I am learning and the penny is beginning to drop - slowly ;D
Cheers
Tony

[Scrit]

mrgrimsdale said:

Site work is the mother of invention - and the last real refuge of hand tool use i.e. out of necessity rather than choice.

Yes indeed! I've got a posh(ish) version of the door wedges myself made from offcuts of hardwood and worth every penny! (i.e. nowt as it was made-up from scraps)

mrgrimsdale said:

Same with sharpening - you can't take your Tormek, glass plates, reams of wet n dry etc. onto a site (you'd get laughed off) so you discover that an oil stone does it OK - and with a bit of practice it does it better!

Does that make us a bunch of pooftahs then? There are no less than two wetstones on our site. And one of them's a Tormek (which goes in the tool safe at night)..... Oh the shame, the shame

To be fair, though, I tend to carry a diamond hone rather than an oilstone - mainly becasue the b*gger is harder to break!

Scrit

[dom]

I was on a site last week and a chippy there had a Tormek, mind you I think he regretted it after we kept borrowing it. ;D

[Alf]

Jacob, I admit to rudimentary bordering on non-exist knowledge of site work - but does much furniture-making go on therein...? (Don't mind me, just playing devil's advocate - the wisdom of less-is-more is not as foreign to me as my tool selection might suggest)

Cheers, Alf

Edited to add - Sorry, Scrit, forgot to say "nice tip". Just need some way of remembering this good stuff when the moment arrives.

[jfc]

knowledge of site work - but does much furniture-making go on therein...?

Depends what you mean Alf , if you mean making chairs then no i've never seen a chair made on site . But if you mean the same practices as those used in furniture then yes .
Before i had my workshop all my wardrobes , dressers and book cases where built on site , i just choose to do them in the workshop as i cuts down the dust in the customers house among other reasons .

[Scrit]

toobyefore said:

Jacob, I admit to rudimentary bordering on non-exist knowledge of site work - but does much furniture-making go on therein...?

I'll answer that as well - not normally. Although there is often a need to modify (either slightly or completely) some piece of hare-brained design or manufacturing to make it fit, work properly/better, look acceptable to client, etc. which also requires its own set of tools and skills. And now I'm being a sm*arris is I both make and install

Incidentally, could you make a pair of proper sawing stools with the legs splayed in both directions using whatever material was to hand and with a set of tools carried on site in just a gate-mouth bag? I cheat and take the folding Zag ones (which are more convenient partly because they'll happily sit in a boot - try that with a pair of the old-school jobbies). That's a challenge which every site joiner once had to meet to gain employment. Personally I'm not so sure I'd pass the test .....

Scrit

[mrgrimsdale]

scrit said:

snip
Incidentally, could you make a pair of proper sawing stools with the legs splayed in both directions using whatever material was to hand and with a set of tools carried on site in just a gate-mouth bag? I cheat and take the folding Zag ones (which are more convenient partly because they'll happily sit in a boot - try that with a pair of the old-school jobbies). That's a challenge which every site joiner once had to meet to gain employment. Personally I'm not so sure I'd pass the test .....

Scrit

Well I could just about make an improper set but as you say they are pain to get in the boot so the folding ones are much better.
But, sfunny you should mention them as I made a proper set recently, which meant going back to the text book as I had completely forgotten how - I'd even been lying awake at night trying to work it out in my head. I posted them up briefly in _{another place} but it got T*nied. Here are the snaps. The top looks too long but that's the snap - it's 1" within the foot plan which makes them inherently stable.
Quiz Time. For those who don't already know, can you work out why they are bl**dy difficult?
cheers
Jacob

[mrspanton]

scrit said:

Does that make us a bunch of pooftahs then? There are no less than two wetstones on our site. And one of them's a Tormek (which goes in the tool safe at night)..... Oh the shame, the shame

To be fair, though, I tend to carry a diamond hone rather than an oilstone - mainly becasue the b*gger is harder to break!

Scrit

Come on then Jacob, tell us how to set out the legs on the horse so that the end plane and the side plane of the horse create a true 90 degree square. Are the legs square in cross section or slightly diamond shaped?? How do you calculate it. I have made several good pairs (with swallow tail's for planing door's) every bit as neat as yours EXCEPT I can only get either the end OR the side plane to be continuous, one plane ends up with the legs "turned in" slightly. I havent been able to solve it or work out how to determine the cross section of the legs (there will be a way, not guess work I am sure ;D)

I got a shock as I decided to try out some of those cheapo diamond card's, £1.99 from Diss market. I'd always thought they were useless, so was pleasantly surprised to find how quick and efficient they are on the axe andbillhook's.
Anyway theres a long tradition of taking a grinding stone on site, you often see a stone grinding wheel (handle or treadle sort) in old photos of chair bodgers and other green woodworkers on site in the coppice wodland. They wouldnt have bothered carrying it there without good reason ;D.

[mrgrimsdale]

Yes you've got it! To be square in plan and at the housing joint the leg section has to be a rhombus, or if rectangular section the housing angle, and the faces of the legs end up slightly tilted.
I got the details from "Joinery and Carpentry" Corkhill, Lowsley et al, vol 4. One of the best sets (6 vols) there is. Crops up on ebay etc now and then for £20 or so.



Heres my workings out full size - just fits a piece of A1 but you have to rearrange the layout from the book



I've done a transcript of the text and could send a copy and better snap of the drawing if you want. It's a mind bender though

cheers
Jacob

[mrspanton]

Thank you for your reply Jacob
I'll keep a lookout for that book. There wasnt anything in George ellis's book as far as I know. Can you do up a clearer picture of your diagram? If I can get my brain in gear you never know the grey cells could just do there stuff and I get a eureka moment... ;D
On my horses I put a upright 4x2 "joist" in the middle with a flat 6x2 on top, so theres a rigid "T" section. Useful overlap for clamping etc I made the swallow tail ends longer so as door's wouldnt snag on the plywood (OSB actually) brace's. When the 6x2 gets chopped about and manky with paint etc just turn it over, then replace when needed. I am confident they would support the weight of a car no bother.

[jfc]

Can you put it here Jacob ? I promise you wont be banned ;D

[Alf]

scrit said:

Incidentally, could you make a pair of proper sawing stools with the legs splayed in both directions using whatever material was to hand and with a set of tools carried on site in just a gate-mouth bag?

Nope. Mind you I'd probably be hard put to even lift the bag... I cheated like crazy making mine (sound much like MrS's), but they work and isn't having fancier stuff than necessary (including joinery) what you lot keep grumbling at us poor amateurs about?

Cheers, Alf