Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a good amount of Shop Fox wood clamps. Some call them "F" clamps. Some say they make me say the "F" word.

They are really bad in that when you put pressure on them the moving part slips up the bar - so making them pretty useless.

Any ideas for something I can do to the bars to make it so they don't slip and I can use them?

I'd just hate to have to pitch these if I can fix them.

Thanks

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Are those the ones for use in F holes?

_________________
"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

If those F clamps have smooth edges on the bars where they slide, you could try filing a series of serrations/small indents down the edges.
I had a similar problem with some cheap clamps, and newer ones with the ridges on them hold much better.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I bought some of them from Amazon several years ago and upon opening the box and checking them out, taped up the box and sent them back. Really bad clamps.
Sorry I can't help...

Yeah, I tried a few of those years ago, they are total junk, I certainly could never get mine to function properly.....Bite the bullet and either buy some good ones or make a batch yourself

Greg

_________________
Gwaltney Guitars

Other than filing notches in the edge or dimpling it with a Ball Peen hammer, the best way I know to fix them is is to put them on Craigslist.

A GREATER FOOL AWAITS!

So, who makes a good one?

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Klemsia/Woodcraft...

I have been told that these are the people that make the clamps for StewMac.

I purchased some from them and have been happy with them!

http://www.usaclamp.com/CamClampPage.aspx

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Paul, what do you use them for? I've seen them being used to close the box in your galleries. Go-bars are extremely effective for that if you don't want to invest in all those clamps.

You can easily make your own cam clamps.
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Probably not without a table saw. And some other tools I probably don't have. Maybe I need to add those to my Christmas wish list!

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

James,

Because of space considerations we have a really limited space for a go-bar deck. We are in the process of designing a new work area where we'll have a new go-bar deck - but here's my question....

Things are a totally different height when using go-bars to glue on braces than when affixing a top or a back to some rims. I guess this means you either need an easily adjustable go-bar deck - or you have to make a spacer box to use when you glue on braces - OR - you have a set of shorter go-bars. So what do you do?

If/when I build a new go-bar deck it would need to swivel as it will sit up against a wall. I've seen some nice videos on how people have done this and am keeping them in mind. The advantage right now to all the clamps is that I can do it out in my office area and have total freedom to get to any side of the guitar easily to check my glue joint.

I invite any and all others insights on this as I ponder my work area redesign.

Thanks

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Best thing in the world to close the box are the 6" Irwin quick grip, sold in packages of four for less than $20, and they have a lot of uses in the shop, I barely use anything else. The Shop Fox cam clamps are a joke, maybe half are usable when they don't break.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

FYI - here's what I'm thinking I might do. This was from a thread that Hesh posted on back in February.

http://home.comcast.net/~kathymatsushit ... swivel.mov

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Paul,

The go bar deck in my shop has the upper surface hanging from the ceiling. The bottom is part of my bench, so when I'm not using it as a deck, it becomes a work space (or junk space). You could use different length bars, but I found it easier to put a booster under tops and backs when gluing braces and such. Kathy Matsushita came up with a novel adjustable upper surface using pipe clamps, which might suit you. Mine doesn't swivel, but I have access from two sides. Swivel would be nice, but wouldn't work on my setup.

Pat

edit: You beat me to it!

_________________
formerly known around here as burbank
_________________

http://www.patfosterguitars.com

That's exactly what I thought of when you said "swivel"!

My deck is height adjustable. I used 3/8" threaded rod and wing nuts. It's slow to adjust the wing nuts, but not terrible for a now and then kind of activity. If I was doing it more frequently I might like a faster system. My go-bars are made from 3/16" fiber glass rod and plastic tips from Into the Wind, a kite shop you can find via Google. They're all 24" long.

just like a car, a clamp is an assembly of components, and when they don't work, you analyse which component is at fault, and fix it accordingly.

ditching the clamp just because it slips is a bit like the proverbial Arab sheikh getting rid of his Rolls -Royce because the ashtray is full.

the efficiency of any F-clamp can be improved by two simple operations.

first of all, take a hammer and a center punch and make a series of indentations close together all the way along both edges of the bar.

secondly, take the clamping arm off (you will probably have to grind of a small raised boss at the end of the bar to do this, but don't worry)

once you have the arm off, grind (or file) the top and the bottom of the slot by whatever means you have at your disposal (I use an angle grinder) in order to reinstate a sharp edge at the points where the arm contacts the bar.

when you replace the arm, take a hammer and peen the end of the bar so that the arm doesn't fall off the end accidentally when in use.

follow these steps and you will have a perfectly functional set of F clamps, no matter how cheap they may have been originally.

Now that was a good answer. It least it was the one I liked.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

It appears to me that the slot has nothing to do with the gripping - but it is the pins that make contact with the bar and thus cause the locking connection.

Am I wrong?

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

I'm with Laurent on the Quick-Grips:

It would appear that your Shop Fox clamps are different from the low-end (no-name) clamps which I have successfully rejuvenated, and I have to admit that I have no experience of Shop Fox F-clamps as such, I assumed (obviously mistakenly) that the design would be exactly the same as the ones which I have treated, where the end of the slot grips the serration in the bar.

Can't help with the F clamp situation. I've inherited some but I don't like how using them, they feel so clunky. Cam clamps are very useful.

As for go-bars, make long bars and use them off of the ceiling. Easy to make a few sets for various ranges of length.

I'd like to have as many quick clamps as David shows, but it will be awhile before I fork out the dough for that many clamps!

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Cutting or grinding serrations in the bar should work to keep them from slipping on the pins which I'm assuming are the same spring steel pins used in the Klemsia clamps. If not, the pins are cheap at the local box store and the old ones replaced quite easily. On some cheap clamps I've seen, the bar contacts the wooden body and not the pin. You then need to chisel away enough of the body to let the bar contact both pins.

Is this Shop Fox F clamp the same one we are talking about ?



I see no evidence of "pins" at least not pins as used in Klemsia clamps.