Cool clamping gizmos

[Jesse Cloud]

I got a couple of pair of these last week and have been having great fun with them.  Great for clamping miters and compound angles.  They are $25 a pair, on sale in November for $19.95.

Here's a video showing examples of what they can do...

Blokkz video

 

[greenMonster]

Seems like a good way to reduce the number of clamps one needs or as a catch-all for those times you don't have the clamps needed.

 

[GhostFist]

I like

 

[PaulMarcel]

It's a similar idea to the Bridge City miter stitches that are no longer available, but it improves on the idea with the clamping cylinder so you can use it with any angle.  Nicely done.  Get on their email mailing list as the guy occasionally rolls a new video of a different idea on how to use them and sends it out.  I don't remember if this video showed it or not, but like the miter stitches, you can put a rod through the cylinders to have multiple along a long mitered glue-up.

Definitely worth having a set or two around.

 

[hrrb]

Hmmm...I like the idea but certainly not the price. Just call me a cheap bastard!

My local dealer sells a pair of stable door hinges for 6 dollars. I'll bet you can use the upper part of a stable door hinge the same way as these gizmos.

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[pugilato]

i built the same thing with a couple of right triangles glued and screwed to the end of a piece of hardboard, which in turn had fine-grit sandpaper glued to the side that goes on the piece.

 

[fritter63]

seems like a couple scrap blocks of wood would do the same?.....

 

[Jesse Cloud]

seems like a couple scrap blocks of wood would do the same?.....

That's what I did before, and it certainly is cheap.  It drove me nuts, though, trying to get the angles right on the scrap.  The round clamping surface coupled with the flat clamping surface works on just about anything.  No need to make a custom caul. 

 

[pugilato]

seems like a couple scrap blocks of wood would do the same?.....

That's what I did before, and it certainly is cheap.  It drove me nuts, though, trying to get the angles right on the scrap.  The round clamping surface coupled with the flat clamping surface works on just about anything.  No need to make a custom caul. 

Using scraps cut at right angles work very well with 90 degree miters... for the miter you showed in the picture, it will be a touch more challenging to figure out the angle, but certainly doable.  In that case, you are 100% correct about the round clamping surface.  This too can be made as a jig.

 

[Jay Knoll]

Or you can hit your scrap bin and spend a half hour making a few yourself

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Works great but I do need to glue some 400 grit sandpaper on the face

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Jay

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Or you can hit your scrap bin and spend a half hour making a few yourself

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Works great but I do need to glue some 400 grit sandpaper on the face

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Jay

Love it!  How did you make the 90 degree cutout in the dowel??

 

[Jay Knoll]

Love it!  How did you make the 90 degree cutout in the dowel??
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Thanks Jesse

I used a router table, set up the fence for the offset.  I've got a 2 handled "holder" for routing small parts, (I think I got it from Woodworker's supply but I can't find it on their site), cranked a piece of dowel in it and made the cut (actually in about 3 passes).  I glued the board onto the dowel with CA, then set the dominos.  Finally I cut the pieces with my crosscut sled.

Jay

 

[Jay Knoll]

And a shot of them in action on a real project

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This is kind of a "big tray" to sit on a hassock on our porch, we don't have a coffee table out there and nowhere to set drinks and stuff.  When we want to use the hassock this will sit underneath the cushion.  There is a cherry lip around the edge to keep things in place. I inset a tile from an artist whose work we like into the plywood.

Jay

 

[DavesBlokkz]

If you haven't seen the edge clamping and frame clamping videos using Blokkz' Universal Clamping Blocks you may want to take a look.
You basically get a frame clamping capability and an edge clamping capability for free if you bought the blocks for miter and angle clamping.
All you need for the additional capabilities are some shims, locking c-clamps and bar clamps which you probably already own.

 

[pingvinlakrits]

Jay, I will steal that idea, I am thinking a half dowel / half cylinder would suffice if Dom'd to the "base" at the end. Yours look craftier though.