Official Luthiers Forum!

Stew mac sell the fingerboard band clamps below for $4.34 which i know isn't a whole lot of money. But i was in walmart about a couple of days ago and stumbled on these in the auto section. They are rv multi clamps. They were on clearance for $2.00 each. There was only 4 so i grabed them all. Regular price was $2.50. Still a deal. They are identical to the ones i bought from stew mac before. I have seen them on ebay for cheap also. They are made by Camco MFG...Mike
http://www.camco.net/Menu.cfm?SupCategoryId=10000&SubCategoryId=209&ProductId=2036

Mike buddy I have some of the Stew-Mac clamps but these days the methods that I use to glue on fret boards would not use this kind of clamp so mine never get used anymore.

Instead I use either the Watkins fret board gluing caul or my Stew-Mac radius sanding beam as the gluing caul for fret boards. Either caul will keep everything nice and straight during glue-up.

Stew-Mac in their guitar kit instructions shows a method of using 2 20' rubber bands for wrapping the fret board during gluing. I bought my clamps, as shown, when I was doing this method but I really don't think that this is the best way to go with the use of a solid, rigid gluing caul being a far superior way to go.

Anyway the clamps like this that I have in my shop are now the loneliest clamps in my shop....

I could splurge to have a couple around for "who knows what might come up". That's what Stew Mac does... This isn't the first thing that I' ve seen where they purchase something, call it something related to guitar building and double the cost. You just have to do some research! Good find!

Dave

_________________
God, Family, Carreer

I use these types for repair jobs since i don't always have proper cauls laying around for various radius or the various type of instruments I works on.. My repairs vary from banjos, bowlback mandolins and violins. These are considered the standard in violin repairs. They realy come in handy for instruments other then guitar.