I made this small clamp just to see if I liked it and it came out much better than I expected. So in this video, I'll make another one and I'll show you how I do it. It's made from a piece of 50 by 12 millimeter mild steel flat bar or two inch by half inch. I'm going to make one with hand tools only. And then I'm going to make more of them but for those I'll use power tools. I really enjoy using hand tools and it shows you don't need fancy equipment to get things done. I get many comments saying I have lots of tools and I do but that hasn't always been the case. And I've never let it stop me from spending time in the workshop and giving it a go. We made similar clamps to this in high school, and to remove the center we drilled a series of holes, then cut through those with a hacksaw and that left to a jagged edge that needed lots of filing. I thought an easier way would be to drill one large hole and then open it up with short cuts and I thought it may look really cool too. I did say that I'll make the first clamp with hand tools only. And I am counting a cordless drill as a hand tool but I think that's acceptable as most people have a cordless drill. Next I need to make two cuts one around about there, and one the opposite side there. That will remove this piece here and open it up. This piece across here the flat needs to be about 10 millimeters long or about three eighths of an inch. I've set my calipers here to 10 millimeters so I'll just mark where that meets the circle and the same here. It was a lot of work and it isn't the easiest thing to part with. But I'm excited to be giving away my hand forged axe that you may have seen in a recent video, I reckon that it turned out fantastic. I made the whole thing from scratch I forged the head and shaped the handle from spotted gum to enter simply click the link in the description below and not only could you win the axe you'll also be entered to five of the clamps I'm making in this video. a Gyokucho and a half inch dovetail razor saw and some Pask Makes merch. To enter the giveaway simply click the link in the description before the entry date closes. And as always, thank you for your support. That's the basic shape of the clamp roughed out. So now I'll do some file work and clean it up a little. the hole saw removes material fast but it does leave a rough finish. Now I need to drill a hole for the bolt to go through and this needs to be very square and straight. It can't wander off it would be easier to do on the drill press but I'm going to show a way that I think should work with a cordless drill for anyone who doesn't have a drill press. The thickness of the steel is 12 millimeters and I've got a four millimeter drill bit that leaves four millimeters either side. So I've glued a piece of four millimeter thick plywood to another piece of plywood. And if I clamp that under there, I can rest that drill bit on there and it should stay square. And to keep it square in this direction, I can just eyeball it and keep it parallel with the vise jaws. So I'll just clamp that on and I can actually use my prototype clamp for the first time and put it to use. not perfect, but not too bad. I think we can live with that. Now I need to drill that out to 6.8 millimeters ready for tapping and I'll do that with an M8 tap And before I do tap it, I'll chamfer the edge with a larger drill bit. That would work as a clamp as it is but we can make it a bit better yet. Next I'll round the corners off it's not necessary but it will look much nicer I need to add my Maker's Mark. So now seems to be a good time to do that. That was a bit deeper than what I wanted, I should have set a stop to limit the depth of the touchmark. This will be much easier to clean up on the belt grinder. But I did say I do this one by hand so here it is. That's the body of the clamp just about done. So next I can start working on the screw that needs a handle through there. But before I do that, I need to make a swiveling pad. I did this one with an M6 nut but this time, I'm going to try using a piece of 12mm round bar I need a six millimeter through hole and then a 7.5 millimeter recess and that's drilled down a couple of millimeters and this will make more sense as the project progresses. Next, I need to fit the pad to the screw and to do that I need to file in the shoulder it's pretty easy to do. I'll use a couple of nuts as a file guide to set the depth and I want the depth to be Just about the height of what that pad is. I'm using the threads that I'm filing off as a guide, and when they're removed, it should be just about the right size for the swiveling pad to go over. The next part is a bit tricky, I need to drill out the center, leaving a thin rim. And when the pad is fitted later on, I'll flare the rim over to secure the pad and stop it coming off. I didn't get the drill bit quite in the center. So I'm putting it over on an angle and trying to get it back towards the middle. It's not perfect, but it should work. That's ready to fit. But before I do, I'll drill a hole through the head of the bolt for a handle to go through. I'm just eyeballing the center and then I'll drill through halfway from either side for the handle I'll use is three millimeter or 1/8 inch brass rod. It's not super strong, but plenty strong enough for a little clamp. On the prototype clamp, I made little end caps to keep the handle on the screw, but I didn't like them much. So this time, I'm going to try pinching the ends instead. I like that I reckon it looks much better and less fussy than the caps on the other one. The last thing to do is fit the swiveling pad and to flare the rim on the screw. And to do that I'll use a ball bearing and another clamp. This needs quite a lot of force. So that's why I'm using a heavier duty clamp than the small clamp itself. I reckon that turned out great. Now I'm going to make some more but this time I'll use some power. I really do enjoy using hand tools. But when you want to make lots of something, then I think that's the time for power tools. I also realize you could just buy small cheap clamps for a few dollars. But I'm not doing this to save money. I'm doing it because it's fun and I enjoy it. I've decided to make these clamps a little different, the hole will be slightly smaller and the height is a bit shorter too by doing this I'll lose a couple of millimeters in the opening but I reckon they'll be a bit stronger. Not that they're weak though but just not made for exerting excessive force. They're plenty strong enough though for their intended purpose. It's no faster drilling these out on a drill press but it is easier than wrestling with a hand drill. I also used an adjustable arm as a stop so I don't have to mark and center punch each piece. I could have cut these with a grinder but they're easy enough to do with a hacksaw. There's no dust and I don't have to wear a dust mask. I'm grinding the inside faces of the jaws. And with this setup, I should get them all fairly accurate and about the same. I've got a guide to keep them square, and I've scribed the line on the table for where to stop. The inside of the large holes are just as rough drilling them on the milling machine made no difference. So I made this drum with a piece of ceramic grinder belt, and it worked fantastic. Now I've got them ganged up ready for the Maker's Mark and while I'm doing one, the next one is heating up. and this time I set the stop on the fly press so they should all come out consistently. Even though on the first clamp, I managed to drill the hole for the screw with a cordless drill. It's much easier, more accurate to do on a drill press. Now they're ready to clean up but I'm not sanding them so far this time as I've decided to paint them. The reason for that is I'm giving most of them away and they'll rust without any protection and I wouldn't be happy to pass them on without a decent finish on them. I've sprayed Boeshield T9 on the unfinished ones and that really does work great but it will need reapplying every now and then I gave them a good clean with acetone before painting them just to get rid of any oil. I filed the ends of the screws in exactly the same way as the other one earlier. I'm looking to get a lathe soon so that would help out if I ever make any more. drilling out the ends was much easier with this setup. And I think that was the trickiest bit on the one that I made by hand. And I use the same bar rotated in the vise to hold the bolts while I drill through it for the handle. Next I'll make the pads and now I can drill out a whole tube ready to cut up into individual pieces. I've made this simple jig to finish the pads I can hold the tube on one end while I drill the recess and then on the other end I can cut them to length and keep them consistent. I didn't show it but I clean the end of the tube on the belt grinder before starting each piece. I'm just taking off the burr left from the hacksaw and then I'll blacken them using super blue. I thought about using super blue on the clamps themselves but I didn't have enough and I would have had to do more sanding and get them to a better finish. Before I fit the screws in the pads I've decided to split the rim on the end of the screws I reckon it will make them easier to flare out when I'm fitting the pad and that's it they're all finished Don't forget to check out the giveaway and good luck with that. I'd like to make more if there's any interest but I couldn't promise as it's difficult to find the time but anyway it was a fun project hopefully you give it a go yourself. Hopefully you enjoyed the video If you did, please like and subscribe. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you on the next one.
