L.V. Clamps Rack

[Mario Turcot]

My clamps racks was one of the first project I made on the CNC. That was almost 3 years ago. Since shop wall is premium in my case I had to come up with a better solution. The L.V. Clamp Rack.

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To:
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Are they worth? They come in 3 parts with hardware.
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and take about 3 minutes to assemble.
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They are long & strong enough to hold 6 parallel clamps.

Little secret.
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I went to the local store and bought 4 racks. The guy came back with 6 racks. He explain that by buying 2 I get a free one. I walked out with 6 racks for the price of 4.  [big grin] If you notice on the receipt they have two different number. One of the number is only available for the employees to see.

 

[ChuckM]

It's $17 Cdn per rack, capable of holding 6 clamps each, or $3 per clamp. It could cost more than $3 to get a replacement clamp pad.

If someone is interested in doing shop builds, has scrap plywood sitting around and has the time, he or she probably thinks it is not worth spending money on them.

The LV racks do have some resale value, but not the ones you make yourself. 

 

[RussellS]

Menards and Home Depot sell shelf brackets for a few dollars each.  Metal.  It would be very cheap and easy to bolt two metal brackets about an inch apart to a piece of plywood.  Then screw the plywood to the wall into the studs.  You could put a piece of duct tape over the metal brackets if you are worried about the metal damaging the clamps.  For less than $5 and a very little time, you could make the equivalent of the Lee Valley racks.  And 10 years from now if you need to put up shelves in your garage or shop, you can just take apart your home made clamp racks and use the shelf brackets like they are supposed to be used.  Go to the Menards or Home Depot websites and do a search on "shelf bracket".  Menards is cheaper and has more options.

My problem with these racks is they are stationary.  I want a movable rack for my clamps I can wheel around the shop floor.  And in my basement I have concrete walls.  No studs to bolt the racks to.  So none of these racks for Bessy clamps is appealing to me.

 

[Max Fracas]

I went from a mobile clamp rack to a clamp wall using metal brackets as [member=13115]RussellS[/member] mentioned.  Very happy with it.  My apologies if I’ve posted more than once — had trouble with attaching a photo.

 

[ChuckM]

The shelf bracket solution may work south of the border. Here it's better to buy the LV's racks ($17 Cdn).
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/everbilt-12-inch-heavy-duty-bracket-in-black/1000676061 - A pair of brackets (comparable to LV's, 12" long or so) to make one rack would cost $20 Cdn, not counting plywood and labor time.

Wall-mounted clamp racks and mobile racks have their pros & cons. I use both (partly because I don't have the wall space).

 

[Mike Goetzke]

Menards and Home Depot sell shelf brackets for a few dollars each.  Metal.  It would be very cheap and easy to bolt two metal brackets about an inch apart to a piece of plywood.  Then screw the plywood to the wall into the studs.  You could put a piece of duct tape over the metal brackets if you are worried about the metal damaging the clamps.  For less than $5 and a very little time, you could make the equivalent of the Lee Valley racks.  And 10 years from now if you need to put up shelves in your garage or shop, you can just take apart your home made clamp racks and use the shelf brackets like they are supposed to be used.  Go to the Menards or Home Depot websites and do a search on "shelf bracket".  Menards is cheaper and has more options.

My problem with these racks is they are stationary.  I want a movable rack for my clamps I can wheel around the shop floor.  And in my basement I have concrete walls.  No studs to bolt the racks to.  So none of these racks for Bessy clamps is appealing to me.

Great idea - few times Menards has these brackets free after rebate!

 

[RussellS]

The shelf bracket solution may work south of the border. Here it's better to buy the LV's racks ($17 Cdn).
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/everbilt-12-inch-heavy-duty-bracket-in-black/1000676061 - A pair of brackets (comparable to LV's, 12" long or so) to make one rack would cost $20 Cdn, not counting plywood and labor time.

Wall-mounted clamp racks and mobile racks have their pros & cons. I use both (partly because I don't have the wall space).

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-12-in-x-8-in-White-Heavy-Duty-Shelf-Bracket-14327/206091428

Same bracket, white instead of black, is $8.68 USA dollars at Home Depot in the USA.  Not $9.98 Canadian dollars.  75 USA pennies per CDN$.  So the brackets are cheaper in Canada than the USA.  $7.50 in Canada.  $8.68 in USA.
https://www.menards.com/main/storag...racket/rp-0046-pm/p-1444436989290-c-12645.htm
https://www.menards.com/main/storag...cket/rp-0099-12pm/p-1444436984174-c-12645.htm
https://www.menards.com/main/storag...lf-bracket/sb2025/p-1473854797877-c-12645.htm
https://www.menards.com/main/storag...elf-bracket/49128/p-1444428711797-c-12645.htm
https://www.menards.com/main/storag...-bracket/dnfg-163/p-1501223575187-c-12645.htm
https://www.menards.com/main/storag...acket/rp-0494-brz/p-1444436964934-c-12645.htm
https://www.menards.com/main/storag...-bracket/dnfg-137/p-1501223575289-c-12645.htm

Above are links to Menards shelf brackets.  A competitor to Home Depot.  They sell lots of stuff for about 25% - 33% of the Home Depot price.  So lots cheaper.  I have Home Depot, Menards, Lowes in my city.  And many smaller, independent type hardware stores.  And Amazon probably sells shelf brackets too.  So finding really cheap shelf brackets should be pretty easy.  Screw a piece of plywood to the wall and then go to town screwing the brackets to the plywood.  It should be pretty easy to get clamp holders for a lot cheaper than what Lee Valley is selling.

 

[ChuckM]

Am I missing something? All the prices you quoted are from stores located in the US. Both Mario and I are based in Canada. Home Depot, Lowe's and Rona, the main hardware big box stores here, don't have brackets priced low enough as compared to the plywood racks. Apples to apples. I was using the similar kind of bracket seen in Max's image in my earlier pricing.

Of course, one can make racks cheaper than those Mario bought, but they aren't the same, are they? I can always get a cordless drill at 1/10 the price of a Festool's from a flea market, but they aren't the same thing.

The only fair comparison is to make the plywood racks (not metal) in one's shop and compare the cost of making them with the price Mario paid for his. And for the record, no one has ever suggested that the LV racks are the most economical or the lowest cost solution.

 

[Mario Turcot]

I'm a big fan of do it yourself, especially if it's for the shop. However sometimes you want to put your time and energy on something else. So this time I put my money at work.

The prices from home depot on the other side of the ice wall.

Shelf bracket

This is the REAL price we pay, keep in mind that you need two.

If I picked the home depot shelf brackets, it would have cost me 12x$9.98(cheapest available HERE)+ 14%(taxes)=$136.53 instead of $101.70 from L.V. that comes with 2 1/4 lag screws. All 6 clamps were put together and installed within 15 minutes.

 

[sustad]

Having brick walls, I just drilled 3/4" holes and stuck  dowels in. Kept it to four deep.

 

[RussellS]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  To whoever started this thread.  Not for the official subject of the thread.  I could care less about that.  But for a couple of the replies.  I came up with what I thought was an original and great way to use shelf brackets to hold clamps.  And then Max Fracas posted a picture of my idea.  I guess my idea was not that original if someone else had already implemented it.  But the picture made me realize it was a great way to hold clamps.

I went downstairs to the basement/shop and found a section of wall that would be a great place to mount clamps.  Perfectly centered to everything.  Near the workbench, near the table saw/outfeed table, near a couple open bare spots on the floor.  I already have a sheet of 3/4" plywood in the garage to use as a backer board.  It will be easy to use the TS55 saw and rails to cut a 4x8' plywood down to the right size.  Easy to set it right on the floor and screw it into the top plate on the concrete basement wall.  And use a couple Tapcon screws at the bottom to hold it to the wall.  I can buy the 12" long shelf brackets for $3.85 each internet.  Need 20-30 of them.  I already own a box of 1" drywall screws to attach the brackets to the plywood.  And I have a gallon of white paint to pretty up the plywood.

Thank you for this thread.  Its given me an example of what to build next.  Something I really need.  A clamp rack on the wall.

 

[Mario Turcot]

[member=13115]RussellS[/member] Glad it gives you the go ahead for your clamps problem  [big grin]

Now you owe use a picture  [wink]

 

[RussellS]

[member=13115]RussellS[/member] Glad it gives you the go ahead for your clamps problem  [big grin]

Now you owe use a picture  [wink]

I promise.  But...don't hold your breath.  I am not setting any exact timeline.  And I just got one of those fancy camera phones so I can take pictures.  I hope I can figure out how to get a picture onto this website.

 

[rvieceli]

Here’s what I did. I have upper wall space but not much below work bench height

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Had the advantage of just redoing the closet system so had all the pieces.

Ron

 

[jeffinsgf]

I'm kinda diggin' Ron's horizontal approach. I live about 15 minutes from the Rubbermaid factory outlet, and they have their shop grade shelf brackets and standards in the clearance bins all the time (Big Box returns).

 

[ChuckM]

Here’s what I did. I have upper wall space but not much below work bench height

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Had the advantage of just redoing the closet system so had all the pieces.

Ron

This horizontal approach is great for mid-level storage (up to arm-raised height). I have a few kept like that above my table saw.

 

[Bob D.]

[member=3192]rvieceli[/member] , That's what I did too for many of my clamps.

It's worked well and the price was right...free...because I
had all the parts from a shelf system I had dismantled a
couple years before.

I made lumber racks too using the HD shelf brackets and
putting the standards on every stud with 3 inch screws.
I used my total station (overkill but I have it so why not)
to ensure they were all level so my lumber wouldn't end
up looking like it came from HD or Lowes.