Clamps

Last weekend I went to help my buddy Chris convert his S2000 into summer mode.  I wasn't as quick with the camera as I usually am, but I snapped a few pics.

But of course I got the most important picture of all.  Wrinkle Red!!

His son Anthony helped out.

Since we have the same name, he made me this sweet drawing.  I'm not sure exactly what it means, but I'm sure it's awesome.

New tools!  I bought a few vise grip pliers to complete my collection and a live center for my lathe.

So in tool news, I stumbled into this Vise-Grip rack during my daily travels on Instagram.  I've been wanting to move some clamps out of my toolbox because they take up so much room, and this looked like a great idea.

So I started to lay it out.  For most of these clamps, I have 6 each - so I would make the rack long enough to hold exactly 6 clamps for easy inventory.

I started by drilling a pilot hole, sized to the shank of my forstner drill bits, at a 5º angle in a block of aluminum.  This would serve as my drill guide.

I laid it out on a sheet of melamine I had leftover from my coffee table project a few months back.

I hate sawdust.

Then I glued in some oak dowel rods, 3/4" and 1" diameter, to hold the clamps.

Test fit success.

The next step was to build the steel clamps for inverted hanging.  I also made these from scraps, most of this material was leftover from the TVR hood hinge fixture.

It's not my cleanest fab work, I forced myself to rush these so I can get back to working on the Jetta.

Test fit of the concept.  These will allow the clamps to hang from their adjusting screw, which is handy for clamp styles that don't hang nicely on wood dowels.

All of the steel pieces ready for welding.

Jigged at 5º

Tacked

All welded and test-fit.

After getting all of the locations perfect, I drilled larger holes and installed tee nuts.  This will be a little stronger than drywall screws, and will allow me to remove them easily if I decide to paint the steel.  Also note my sloppy wood glue work.  I don't really enjoy woodworking.

I set up a guide to trim the edges.  These were previously a little rough, so I busted out my router.

Installed

All filled up!

This is right in front of my primary working area, so they will be really handy to grab.

And holy fuck would you look at that... an empty drawer!!! I haven't seen one of these in years.

It didn't last long though.  I already have a bunch of precision measurement and layout tools piled in. I still have to organize everything, but this will become my precision/layout/machinist tool drawer.

In other tool news, a second motivation for this clamp rack is that I wanted to free up some room to store my newly purchased rivet equipment.  I stumbled into these for a spectacular price I couldn't pass up, plus solid riveting has been high on my list of things to incorporate into a project.