Why Adam Savage Made His Own Hand Clamp

[Music] hey everybody Adam Savage in my cave and if my eyes seem puffy it's because after a genuine old school San Francisco winter and a few sunny days we're having a pollen Bloom to beat the band and it's kicking my nose's ass there's a metaphor for you this reminds me of one of my all-time favorite advertising taglines is from uh Flamin Hot Cheetos had a billboard in LA whose copy was head butt your mouth's face so recently I was working on some parts of my R2D2 some little leg uh battery battery parts and there's a little uh little clevis there that's what a clevis is it's like when a little fin goes up between two leaves and a cross thing goes through that's a clevis it's like a hinge a hinge is a type of clevis anyway I was making these little clevis parts for the top of these R2 battery parts and I wanted to hold on to them and so I went to my drawer of Jewelers clips and I pulled out this which is uh I have learned a lull pattern wire pulling hand Vice and I thought I want to make one of these bigger because right now this one only opens up to I mean it's about 3 8 of an inch at its maximum it's about 3 8 of an inch that's not enough for me and I wanted to go up to like three quarters of an inch like double that the problem with this design first for that is that um these Jaws don't stay parallel and I want I want to hold on to Small Things squarely so that I'm not munging them number one but number two so they don't leave my my my my tool and go flying when you're polishing and wire Wheeling that's when it's the most dangerous so this is what I'm gonna build right there I'm gonna build a machinist clamp like that little parallel Vice Jaws this is going to be some interesting um yeah it's going to be some interesting stuff here uh so I'm just gonna make some drawings I've got got a nice base of cast iron here that I might use for much of this I've also got some cast iron bar I pulled out of something a couple of years ago that's multiple passes with an end melts very nice you know without something to do I just figured I'd process some cast iron down to being a square and perpendicular plate for use later and that may come in handy I've got some black walnut here for uh the handle and I think even though these machinist spice usually have these round handles I think I'm going to go with this kind of handle because I like it I like the way it feels I like the positive orientation it gives you I want all that so uh yeah that's today's build we're going to build a hand clamp I was looking at them on eBay and I was thinking I want a really nice old one and then I was thinking why don't you just make a nice new one that looks old that's what you do I thought I was filming the whole time what a dummy hey I made a drawing hey I made a drawing all right here's my drawing uh as you can see it's a little bit bigger than the than this clamp I've made it a little larger for uh holding on to slightly larger parts uh I believe I can get everything I need out of this former microphone stand we're gonna try and use the microphone stand to make this and this is a piece of old railing that I installed in my house all right so first I want to process this piece of Steel all right let's move that market [Music] [Music] intended to do I intended to do that [Music] [Applause] yep I'm always forgetting to do this so there's the before pick yeah I'm gonna do that this old Tony like a foot job at least just separate um that's going to be the main body sorry this chunk of cast iron from this mic stand is going to be the main body of this this piece of black walnut will be there I think this is Walnut anyway it doesn't matter it's going to be the handle of this and yeah let's get started that's going to be the full width of the Jaws all right I've got a I have to square this up somehow [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign so that's my former Mike Stan processed into a reasonable piece of Steel now I'm going to make uh do some layout on there [Music] that's one of the old feet it doesn't really matter for my purposes I'm going to do a slice down here and a slice here and then I'm going to do a slice I'm going to leave this on the bottom for a while so I can hold on to it but that's the first thing slice there and slice there [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign that cut all the way down [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] well that's a lovely piece of stock let's do some layout on it so forty thousand [Music] this is a quarter inch little slot I'm trying to machine a quarter inch proud here and you can gather how this is going uh it turns out that my quarter inch radius Mill I'm just going to look at some others oh that might do it okay so uh the issue that I was having this will at least get me a lot closer out [Music] so the issue that I was having was I wanted to Mill exactly a quarter inch rate eight inch radius bump on the end of this and this is actually of course it does it goes deeper than a eighth of an inch and farther out than an eighth of an inch I was thinking I could squeeze it in but this is a custom made little End Mill that I got as part of a shot by many years ago and uh I'm gonna try that puppy oh that is good enough I can use a file to get this the rest of the way foreign so after a bunch of some little finagling and finishing I've got these two pieces very very tightly tracking together I'm quite pleased I almost tapped this hole to 5 16 and then I remembered I don't want to tap anything until I've aligned everything so now what I want to do is I actually want to cut away a little bit a little Notch here for the other jaw because I want to bring this up even closer so that my parallelism will be really really really nice but I'm really happy with that that's a that's a nice little it's a nice little fitment there's very little there's a there's a just a tiny bit of rocking which I want because I want it to rest in there and I'm going to go in and lap that a little bit with a yeah I'm gonna go and do a little lapping but first I want to cut out some business here a four flute carbide here uh is this four inch half inch carbide is absolutely proving my bread and butter it is my red and buttermilk and milk for this job cast oh I'm also running it's a it's a half inch carbide four flute and I'm running it at [Music] just over a grand just over a thousand RPM let's see here see if I can do both of these operations at once I think I can I think let's balance out this Vice [Music] [Music] interesting you can't see that hang on yeah try that I'll actually try this here [Music] okay okay yeah all right let's get this up also radius the bottom of this [Music] oh yeah I was tight good [Music] very happy that's great that oh that's just what I wanted [Music] is that clear is that in Focus I can't even tell there it is very pleased all right so so now what I want to do yeah yeah I think I gotta find that hole yeah yeah okay yeah we're gonna do something a little funky here oh no I gotta one I gotta trim the edge of this first so I'm gonna lay it down all right so here's my issue my issue is there's about a three four thousandth step between this and this here so I can't just clamp it flat I I can't just clamp it like this because they won't grab together and this could be off angles so I'm going to put it down and grab it like this find that hole and then drill drill out the uh the correct holes for the for the business all right I'm going to try locating it using a gauge pins [Music] foreign [Music] I picked a perfect gauge pin on the very first try ladies and gentlemen ladies and Gentlemen please um very exciting Okay so you go there you can live there and I'm gonna locate this hole just by finding that is my zero out one last thing one last check no that's pretty darn Square so we're gonna uh yeah we're just gonna slowly board this all the way through [Laughter] [Music] okay let's start it now we'll do this one uh now I want to ream that out to the exact dimension of my parallel bar which is points 1875 is 5 16. 3 16. I'm so sorry it's 3 16. here's a 3 16 actual yep [Music] oh whoops you got bombed I see what happened better all right [Music] oh yeah that is great that's exactly the fit I wanted let's go ahead and tap it while it's here oh yeah yeah let's make sure this is super straight [Music] oh right back to him 0.43 back to zero [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] now I've roughed out the shape I've got it clamped in I'm going to make those two faces identical and I've still got about a 3 000 step here I'm going to face this whole thing uh once I faced it then I'm going to do another layout on it and I'm going to take down everything but the Jaws yeah it's a whole thing so um this is all going really really well this is clamped really nice and tight and yet this still moves which is a very good sign um later I'm gonna actually end up um probably lock tighting this into here or maybe even pinning it if I can grow into that we'll see uh but right now what I'm going to do is I'm going to relieve some of the some of this meat here because it doesn't need to be this heavy duty you'll see I'm leaving this whole bit so I have some Square I have all this material I can hold on to which is really important for Machining this I'm going to leave the Jaws yeah we're just uh we're gonna slowly remove a bunch of meat from all this and we'll see how we go [Music] questions [Music] okay now I want to drill a hole right through the middle of that puppy oh yeah and then I'm gonna pull that out great great great Okay cool so I'm going to secure this to the handle with a little captured screw down in there yeah um and that means I'm also going to enround this business with a um with one of the things I have uh but first it's time to cut this wow it's time to cut that yeah yeah it's happening what's happening is it time to cut that [Music] coming along oh it's coming along isn't it yeah um [Music] you sent it there oh it's not even one o'clock we're doing good oh that'll do it yeah yeah I saw that oh yeah you are moving way too much I know ah yeah yup yup yup you all saw it coming I know you did here's how we're going to do this every single time I do it all right so maybe I should stop throwing good money after bad you just start cutting this thing down that'll be easier this is all going to die inside up yeah you'll see [Music] all right yes half an inch within a okay [Music] it's not going to want to do want to do that it's going to want to move all over the place so what can I do I'm now going to be working on the vice jaw itself and removing a little more meat from it this is pretty close [Music] actually I want to bring this together yeah I do I know I know I know I'm trying to do too much oh ha ha you're kidding me [Laughter] all right well then yeah I uh yeah I screwed up [Laughter] okay so right [Music] let me cut down that face now oh I'm not sure you were in fact level let's get some level levelness on you how many cameras were on you [Music] this is all shaping up nicely all right now I want to start to oh right I want to start to round these off and clean them up so there's going to be some some finishing [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] it's time to do the handle I'm going to Chuck it into my sixth jaw and yeah I'm gonna get started [Music] all right we can just start hogging [Music] foreign [Music] foreign let's see what did I do [Music] um I took one of the parts and I gave it a kind of a Polish and you can see it against its neighbor here so I think I'm going to do that for this part too it's coming along uh but what really happened was I finished uh the mock-up on the handle and now I am going to add the hexagonal hexagonal uh facets here like this yeah I'm going to do that and then I'm going to Chuck this back in the lathe sand it down sand that uh that that bulb down there and we'll be off to the proverbial races we're not too far all right so uh we're gonna bring you over here I got plugged in oh this right here this is a 5c collet uh and this is a 5c collet block and you can use these to do a a circle dividing at least if it's six six divisions 120 degrees each no uh 60 degrees excuse me so um I am going to bring this down here and I'm just going to spin it up to speed a high speed [Music] yes I want to go like 2500 rpm and then once I get a a pass I like foreign like that all right let's see how I'm going to zero that I'll turn that off so I don't give that a a spin and we'll see how close we got oh something was dreadfully wrong ah I see what was wrong all right we're going to tighten this puppy up did I did I rack I'm quite know I remember first learning about collet blocks of Jamie's shop there yeah there we go dramatic okay good that's good Chris beautiful a spring pass oh that's perfect okay it's not quite perfect it could be a little bit so here is the handle yeah I'm gonna clean that this radius up here a little bit but I really like this I feel like it uh I'm really happy with it so I'm going to undo it from this clamp this back in the middle leg you know that thing [Music] I'm really happy feels great looks great looks the part uh I'm just gonna use a little hand saw cut that right there [Music] lovely I'll just sand that a little bit [Music] look at that I'm really pleased it looks great feels great okay um so I'm gonna hold this all together using you guessed it a 5 16 screw I'm going to cut this I'm just going to slide down into there but first [Music] foreign it into here really tight excellent now I'm going to cut this one in bands off [Applause] [Applause] so right so I'm going to use this that is gorgeous I'm going to use this I'm going to put a little bit of brass in there is that what I'm doing yeah I'm just going to put a little brass washer in there best I can do is a grade eight uh okay so we are going to we're going to Loctite that way down in there that's what we're going to do however [Music] we're going to figure out just how long this is going to be right so that's where I'm cutting it [Music] okay so I'm cleaning out this with a little bit of um [Music] acetone and a the Lord knows how many years of Grease are in there and I'm going to lock tight into this so I really want it to be clean ow ooh that acetone really finds your Cuts doesn't it Loctite 380 the big stuff well that's certainly set [Music] okay now I need a spring oh right I want to also get the uh get the grease and dirt out of this hole here which is where I'm pinning in this cut on the bandsaw I don't think it will but let's see no it will dull my bandsaw that's for sure [Music] I feel like I want to do a little more sanding on this thing [Music] there it is there's my handle all right oh I'm very happy about that that is that is some nice action going on there oh right spring see if we can close it all the way up and we can amazing Okay so uh this is great I still need to do some more polishing on it and I think thank you let's see how this takes a stamp [Music] [Music] a successful s Here Comes an a oh Christ I thought so much about it I screwed it up wow I really really really just like totally messed it all right oh I'm in a mill a little slot and I'm gonna put the letters at the bottom of the slot and that'll also make us look a little more like a real piece of equipment I should be holding on to this nice and tight instead of loose and down s [Music] a V a [Music] G and I think my a second a is a v so we're gonna go back over it there it is uh right so uh I don't love that spring that I had but we're gonna keep going with it all right we're gonna use the finish for this that I've been thinking about for a while which is three in one oil yeah we're just gonna douse this on this oh yeah soak it in baby soak it in you can see all the you can see all the inclusions you know it was hard to get a nice surface finish on this cast iron but I'm pretty pleased with how sturdy it is and its operation is really quite nice it opens up and it opens up to a nice long yeah that is like yeah that's what I was hoping for you know a good uh three quarters of an inch actually yeah that's like 7 8. this I'm really happy about oh wait wait [Music] is one of the other stuff is that you draw it and then you make it at that I that's I'm really happy with that that is well it's exactly it's pretty much exactly what I drew yeah let's talk about the things we make shall we the main front the whole point of this channel is that there's nothing as much fun as making your own tools and your toys and taking the tools and toys that you have and making them better um it is a singular Joy to be a maker of things and be able to make your own things to make more things it's spectacular spectacular uh and on the journey as it were just beating it up a little bit give it some kind of soft edges on the journey that things go on there are times when we're able to make uh choices I'm Dr I'm trying to sneak up on this look I I just I think this is very very I'm very pleased with it and also it's in a certain way not beautiful just to me um I could do some things I don't know I I've look I'm going to take this home I'm gonna smell it tonight uh I'm on my way out to dinner with Adam Rogers I'm going to show it to him at dinner um in every way I'm like I'm stoked about making this today and what got made today and I feel like I know a little more about hand vices and that next time I make one that is a little more beautiful or that I you got to make something in order to understand what your point of view is on the making of that thing like these two trapezoids um I mean they're they're they're not they're not weighted the same they don't relate to each other very well so I don't know whether I bring this one down and do that oh that's actually kind of nice yeah that may be it I don't know um I'm very pleased with the knob here um and it closes and uh it allows me to hold on to small things with great rigidity let's see here where's the small thing here is a little rivet and we're just gonna put that rivet in there oh yeah and I can clamp down on that and this rivet is something I can go and shape and carve and saw and all of that stuff and when I'm done I just open it up and the rivet comes back out so yeah I mean I just I've spent all day on this I'm like really happy with this tool it's going to live with me for the rest of my life damn that's good smell um and I just I I think I now know enough to the next time I go and do this the next time I go and make one of these it may be even more lovely I mean I gotta practice the I gotta practice putting my name on stuff with these stamps I have an idea for a holder that would allow you to stamp onto kind of anything and like be lined up for it each time that's a nice idea 513 well [Music] fight shop uh I will get more done tomorrow if I clean up today and that used to be a cast iron mic stand and a bit of a railing and now it is a hand Breeze all right I was blathering on so long I can't remember if I wrapped this video or not so uh yeah here's to say thank you for joining me for this one day build and yeah if you have a machinist hand Vise that you really like or a design or an old style um you know I know those pin vices that Jewelers use where the pins are configurable and you can hold on to some really irregular stuff I don't need that as much as I need this kind of thing strong small jaws that allow me to do hand work this might be perfect um anyway put them in the comments and I will read them thank you guys for joining me for this one day build and I will see you next time gonna clean up for dinner

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 220,508

Keywords: tested, adam savage, adam savage tested, one day builds, tested adam savage, one day build, adam savage tools, adam savage essential tools, adam savage one day build, favorite tools, how to, one day builds adam savage, adam savage one day builds, tested one day builds, adam savages one day builds, workshop, hammer, milling, woodworking, build, hand clamp

Id: nZAJKGHJy4c

Length: 54min 52sec (3292 seconds)

Published: Wed May 24 2023