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Clamp Storage (2003 & 2005)


How many times have you heard the old woodworking cliche "you can never have enough clamps"? I actually don't really believe that's true, but nevertheless I've accumulated quite a few clamps. Storage for all those buggers soon becomes an issue, and there are several common ways to keep them organized. I choose to hang mine on the wall because I don't have the luxury of enough shop space for a roll-around clamp cart or other similar gizmos.

For common pipe and bar clamps I've been using the method shown in the pic below. It's just a board screwed to the wall that provides a ledge for the clamps to grab onto. It's simple, cheap, expandable, flexible, and it works well.

For the larger heads of parallel jaw clamps (like Bessey's or CabinetMaster's) I've borrowed another common solution to hang them. It's a just a board with notches cut in it that allows the clamp bar to slide in and the clamp head to have a place to sit. I added another piece attached at 90 deg's that gives me a place to secure the assembly to the wall. This works great, keeps the clamps very organized and secure, but takes a bit longer to make. It's still very simple stuff, and very well worth the short time needed to build and install.

rack

Even with all this space, I've started to run out of room for some of my odd-sized clamps like spring clamps and handscrew clamps. I've taken to hanging these on the roof rafters. That keeps them up out of the way, and since my basement ceiling is a just under 8' they're still withing easy reach. You can see a few hand screw clamps hanging from the ceiling joists in the top of the first picture above.

Update Nov 2005: After a recent K-Body clamp sale, I had to make more room for my clamp inventory. So I made another slotted clamp rack for the f-clamps and devoted the main rack for the parallel jaw clamps.

rack3


© Copyright 2006 Chris Billman