Deep Throat Bench Clamps?

[JPCleary]

Anyone know of a source for bench clamps, like the Festool quick clamp style, with a deeper throat than the Festool clamps?

And let me tell y'all why I'm asking, because there may be a better solution than deeper clamps...

Every now and then I find myself needing to clamp a piece of material to the MFT, but it happens to be in a position where it's just out of reach of my clamps. Repositioning the work piece seems obvious, but let's assume for this conversation that that isn't possible for whatever reason...

...any solutions other than a deeper clamp to get from the ideal dog hole to the piece of material needing to be clamped?

 

[RKA]

A clamp with a deeper throat wouldn’t fit into the MFT hole.  You can orient two pieces of wood in a sideways L where the two legs pivot where they meet.  The long long would extend out to your work piece and your quick clamp would apply pressure between the pivot point and the work piece.  You wouldn’t get a lot of clamping pressure this way, but it should be enough.

 

[Michael Kellough]

A deeper Festool style clamp could fit thru the hole in an MFT as long as the length was suitably increased.

The traditional solution to applying pressure beyond the reach of a clamp is to use a stiff stick about a half foot longer than the distance from the clamp to the spot you want to press. Rest the outboard end of the stick on a riser block and then use the clamp to bend the bend the stick down. If the stick isn’t stiff enough you might need a small riser block under the business end too.

Doing the above with an MFT limits the pressure you can apply to the stiffness of the mdf top itself. You can increase that by engaging the clamp with a caul under the table.

 

[sancho57]

Kreg has a 6" bench clamp that will work. I dont know if you need something deeper.
https://www.kregtool.com/store/c29/bench-clamps/p391/6-bench-clamp/

Kreg sells a accessory to use the bench on a MFT. But most make their own and I THINK Veritas or Lee alley makes one to, but they are pricey.

What exactly are you tring to do as others have solutions / jigs they came up with for special situations

 

[shanegrilah]

Occasionally when I run into this situation, I change a parallel clamp into a spreader then clamp between the bottom of the floor joists on the ceiling to the top of the MFT. My shop is in a basement with fairly low ceilings. Obviously this will only work if you have the appropriate work space.

Regards,
Shane

 

[John Bates]

I don't know if you know them but Armor Tool do clamps that might fit the bill for you. They are in Rockler and Woodcraft, I act as an agent for them over here in the UK

 

[rst]

The steel arm for the Festool clamps are the same for the standard twist grip and the quik clamp.  I ground off the nub that keeps the sliding parts off and switched two of my twist type with two of my quik clamps and voila...deep throat quik clamps.

 

[JPCleary]

Ended up getting a couple of the 6” Kreg clamps (thanks, jobsworth) and a couple of the Precision Dogs MFT clamp mounts to pair with them.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H1WFNYC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_uLiKBbXJJY8SX
https://precisiondogs.us/products/precision-clamp-mount

Thanks all for the input!

 

[rst]

Good choice, I thought you were referring to height.  I have a bunch of the extended Kregs that I use on my MFTs and my drill press.

 

[gnlman]

those are great clamps....just a word of warning though...I used them on the front profile of my mft3, and they actually distorted the aluminium a bit. I thought they would be faster than festool clamps which they were....only issue was I changed the nut and bolt on clamp for shorter bolt and nut that would fit in profile.....that was my mistake....I think you need to spread the pressure the clamp  creates on the base over the extrusion a bit more than a nut and washer does...looking at the festool clamps when they are in the extrusion the bottom of clamp that is metal is longer therefore spreading pressure and does not damage extrusion. I need to find some metal that fits in extrusion (like table joiners only cheaper...lol) and drill and tap for bolt.....much faster than festool clamps if you are say edge banding with iron and putting many pieces thru....hope this  helps you save your extrusion in case anyone decides to try what I did....lol
Greg

 

[rst]

Gnlman, I did the same thing the first time I used mine on the MFT, took much filing and thumping to get back into shape.  Better to ease into pressure

 

[gnlman]

Hi. Yes I did try and ease into pressure, but I was using melamine, and it's slippery so needed a good bit of pressure so it didn't move.also use this method at times for domiino...went back to festool clamps til I find time to make longer inserts to spread pressure.
lol..
Greg

 

[Euclid]

The combination of Michael’s post (reply 2) and Shane’s (reply 4) put me in mind of a ‘Go deck’, much beloved of luthiers:
for eg.https://musicdna.me/go-bar-deck-pla...-the-acoustic-forum-bright-go-bar-deck-plans/

That's not helping much with the original question, I know, but I’ve always thought this was a neat technique.

 

[Corwin]

those are great clamps....just a word of warning though...I used them on the front profile of my mft3, and they actually distorted the aluminium a bit. I thought they would be faster than festool clamps which they were....only issue was I changed the nut and bolt on clamp for shorter bolt and nut that would fit in profile.....that was my mistake....I think you need to spread the pressure the clamp  creates on the base over the extrusion a bit more than a nut and washer does...looking at the festool clamps when they are in the extrusion the bottom of clamp that is metal is longer therefore spreading pressure and does not damage extrusion. I need to find some metal that fits in extrusion (like table joiners only cheaper...lol) and drill and tap for bolt.....much faster than festool clamps if you are say edge banding with iron and putting many pieces thru....hope this  helps you save your extrusion in case anyone decides to try what I did....lol
Greg

I had a similar issue also. Rather than trying to find something that fits into the extrusion, you might try using a short board that attaches to the profile with two T-nuts and then fix your clamp to the board. This approach works to mount the Kreg clamps using the small Kreg Clamp Plate.

 

[rst]

This is how I use my Kregs on my MFTs now.  This is also how I use my Sys Vacs.
  View attachment 1    View attachment 2    View attachment 3

 

[gnlman]

funny how one can make something so complicated by focusing on one idea....those are both very good and much simpler solutions...ever tried to measure the inside of the festool extrusion with calipers....lol
Thanks for the tips...got wood, got tee nuts and got 8020...I'll give it a go!
Thanks again....sorry for highjacking this thread ...lol
Greg