5 Shop-Made Clamps
Save money and solve unique clamping challenges by building your own clamps.
You don't have to be woodworking very long before you run into situations where ordinary bar clamps just won't get the job done. Woodworking catalogs feature a variety of specialty clamps, but it's hard to justify their price for occasional use. On the other hand, with just a few, small pieces of wood and some inexpensive hardware you can make your own special-purpose clamps. We've included plans for five styles: cam clamp, edging clamp, frame clamp, deep-reach clamp, and chair clamp.
SELECT YOUR PLAN PACKAGE
What You Get:
- 13 printable (digital) pages of step-by-step instructions
- More than 30 full-color photos and illustrations
- 5 full-size patterns. Sources list
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Imperial Plans
The United States Customary System of Units (USCS or USC), more commonly referred to as the English or Imperial system, is the standard set of units for our plans. It uses inches and feet for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are in the United States, and it is the one we have traditionally offered on this website.
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Metric Plans
The International System of Units (SI), more commonly referred to as the metric system, is the alternative set of units that we have available for some of our plans. It uses millimeters, centimeters, and meters for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are outside the United States. These plans are provided by our business partner, Australian Woodsmith, and are based on the original Woodsmith plan. However, dimensions and other elements of the plan may vary between the metric and standard versions. Be sure to double-check the plan before building.
![Metric System Representation](/assets/img/330px-SI_base_units.avif)
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Premium Plans
All of the information that you need to build our plans can be found in the standard plan. However, if you want even more granular detail to make your job easier, you should consider our premium plans. These come with additional shop diagrams that we drew when creating the prototypes. Shop drawings are not available for every plan.