Picking the collective brain

[arglebargle]

Hi all,

This isn't working for me:

I would love to hear/see how other manage their clamps, specifically these kinds of clamps.

Thanks!

 

[Bill Yacey]

I hang my clamps in a similar manner, but on large wood dowels  placed specific to the clamp shape, so they all hang in an orderly fashion. This makes it easy to select one, or a handful easily while working.

[Rue]

Pegboard is your friend...

[Bill Yacey]

17 minutes ago, Rue said:

Pegboard is your friend...

Some like pegboard, I detest it. In my experience the hooks flop about when you touch them, the pegs are too bouncy / flimsy, and you are limited to whatever hooks they sell. That, and it just doesn't seem to be a good use of storage space.

The bulk of my small hand tools all go into shallow drawers in and beside my workbench.

[Rue]

I think you could organize all those clamps with pegboard.  It would be easy to space/hang 2 or 3 in order to support the width of the larger clamps and keep it all tidy.

Or, you could make your own version using a sheet of plywood as the back, and maybe doweling as the hangers.  Keep them sorted by size/shape.  Have them easy to grab when needed and equally easy to put away immediately after use.

That would sure beat having them jumbled in a drawer or box.

While I like drawers, I also find they end up underused - mostly because they are less immediately visible...or they get jumbled and then underused...because they become yet another 'junk drawer' with stuff lost at the bottom and other stuff 'stuffed' on top.

A lifetime of having an often-used 'junk drawer' in the kitchen - that I clean out yearly - has proven a valuable lesson...

(...not to mention various desk drawers, file cabinets and cupboards...)...

[TJ Fuss]

Never liked pegboard, so I built a simple rack. Smaller clamps reside in a Kennedy tool box drawer.

[Bill Yacey]

17 minutes ago, Rue said:

While I like drawers, I also find they end up underused - mostly because they are less immediately visible...or they get jumbled and then underused...because they become yet another 'junk drawer' with stuff lost at the bottom and other stuff 'stuffed' on top.

A lifetime of having an often-used 'junk drawer' in the kitchen - that I clean out yearly - has proven a valuable lesson...

(...not to mention various desk drawers, file cabinets and cupboards...)...

That's the reason I made a chest of shallow( 3") drawers organized with dividers for specific tools. There isn't enough depth to bury the tools under additional junk.

[Michael Darnton]

I use drawers, a Grizzly rolling oak tool chest base. Small clamps go in boxes in the drawers, larger get stacked neatly by themselves. Keeping them tidy doesn't seem to be a problem.

[martin swan]

Clamp the clamps to "mini-shelves" ...? That's my solution!

[Geigenbauer]

Some more options from my workshop...

[uncle duke]

3 hours ago, arglebargle said:

Hi all,

This isn't working for me:

I would love to hear/see how other manage their clamps, specifically these kinds of clamps.

Thanks!

 

From here it seems if you move holders #2 and #4 above #1 and #3 you'll have it beat unless the lower pic piles of clamps are not the ones shown in the first picture.

[arglebargle]

Thanks!

[JoeDeF]

[Bill Yacey]

10 hours ago, martin swan said:

Clamp the clamps to "mini-shelves" ...? That's my solution!

When I'm gluing up things, I don't always have the exact clamps I need prepared and laid out on the bench, so I like to be able to quickly grab what I need, which is why I have them hanging.

If they are clamped to something for storage, you need to fumble to loosen it before you can put it in use. I guess needs vary according to every individual's work flow.

[Jeffrey Holmes]

Everyone works a little differently, but I think quick access to clamps is a real benefit.  I keep smaller clamps (small bars, pillar clamps, closing clamps, small Cs, etc) and longer "reach" clamps for cello repairs are stored in drawers, but most medium size clamps are on two racks (below).  The wall rack is half empty and the rod storage is short a few, as the clamps that live there are in use this morning. I think you'll get the idea though... Hope this helps.

 

[jacobsaunders]

Do you have your cleaning lady dust them?

[Rue]

I like to think I'm tidy. 

Jeffrey is much tidier. 

[Rue]

21 hours ago, Geigenbauer said:

Some more options from my workshop...

...that's kinda what I was thinking of...when I said pegboard, or a DIY version thereof.

[Jeffrey Holmes]

4 minutes ago, jacobsaunders said:

Do you have your cleaning lady dust them?

Nope...  Dusting duty is mine.   

[David Burgess]

4 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:

Do you have your cleaning lady dust them?

No need. Once or twice a year, open a large outside window with an exhaust fan placed inside, and blow the shop out with a nozzle on a compressed air hose. Modern technology stuff. Stradivari had to bring in a forge or pipe organ bellows to do such a thorough job of shop cleaning.

Omobono didn't like all that pumping at first, so he moved to another city. But he eventually concluded that pumping was better than humping, so he came back to work in the family workshop.

[Craig Cowing]

I hang them along pipes in the basement but not in traffic areas. Near the wall. 

[Bill Yacey]

⁹

4 hours ago, David Burgess said:

No need. Once or twice a year, open a large outside window with an exhaust fan placed inside, and blow the shop out with a nozzle on a compressed air hose. Modern technology stuff. Stradivari had to bring in a forge or pipe organ bellows to do such a thorough job of shop cleaning.

Omobono didn't like all that pumping at first, so he moved to another city. But he eventually concluded that pumping was better than humping, so he came back to work in the family workshop.

I do my spring cleaning on a nice, windy day with a strong wind out of the west.

I get a good draft moving through the shop, and I raise the dust up in all the nooks and crannies with the compressed air blow gun.

On the evening news I hear reports of an unusual freak dust storm in Saskatchewan.

[Rue]

1 hour ago, Bill Yacey said:

...On the evening news I hear reports of an unusual freak dust storm in Saskatchewan.

[Bill Yacey]

No offence Rue; I would rather the dust went further east to Manitoba.  Personally, I didn't think it was a good idea to build an entire province between here and Manitoba.

[arglebargle]

My solution:

Much better.