# Made a heavy G clamp



## Ed. (Aug 4, 2013)

Hi everyone, been meaning to do one of these for ages, I got tired of  the flimsy commercial G clamps that are available, there have been many  times that I wanted to clamp something to the bench with a bit of force  so that the work piece won't move when I need to hit it with a hammer,  and if you tighten up the commercial ones up too much they start to  twist or self destruct.

This one should last me forever. Might make another one when I have some  more time. Drilled a 16mm hole for the handle, but didn't have a piece  of round steel lying around so that will be added later, however I  welded up a large nut on the bottom of the screw so I can tighten up the  clamp using a shifting spanner.

Unfortunately some of my pics disappeared so only have ones from the raw  plate to the welded clamp. Sorry, but it appears that my camera has  Gremlins. 

The plate is a 16mm piece of scrap I picked up, plasma cut out the shape  and then ground to clean up the edges, the flange is 40mm x 6mm flat  bar, fully welded around the outside, the screw has a 30mm x 3.5mm  thread and made from a piece of scrap trailer axle I had, the nut is  from a 45mm square bar. lastly the top pad is 12mm x 40mm flat bar. The  screw pad is a bit of 40mm round, drilled and turned with a slight angle  inside on the top 8mm and then slotted with a cut off disc, wound the  screw into the clamp, inserted the cap on the screw, put it into a vice  and hit the top edge till the slots closed around the top part of the  screw ball.

Painted it with a coat of primer and 2 coats of grey Hammer tone paint.  In the last pic I added a drink can for a size comparison.

Cheers

Ed.


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## LJP (Aug 4, 2013)

Ed, that is a nice looking clamp! I particularly like the hex nut on the end to give it that extra "tighten" or "loosen" with a wrench.
Larry


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## Walt (Aug 4, 2013)

Nice work. That should last a while.

Walt


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## Ray C (Aug 4, 2013)

Very nice work!


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## RandyM (Aug 4, 2013)

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## PurpLev (Aug 5, 2013)

nice work!


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## xman_charl (Aug 5, 2013)

What a BRUTE!!

Charl


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## jumps4 (Aug 5, 2013)

that came out really nice
steve


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## richl (Aug 5, 2013)

Really.nice clamp... another dozen should be.just.enough Rich


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## 283v8 (Aug 12, 2013)

Quite an awesome project. A thing of use and beauty made from "scrap"   Very nice work. 
I always love having tools that meet my own specs.


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## DAN_IN_MN (Aug 12, 2013)

VERY NICE work!

Now, how do you guys down under make a G out of that thing? :jester:  (It's fun on world wide forums to learn what other places call things.)


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## Ed. (Aug 12, 2013)

Thanks for comments fellas, as for the "g" clamp,  if I put a handle in the screw, wound it up and flipped the body to face the other way it would look like "g", and Bessey clamps are also known sometimes here as  "f" clamps. In fact I had never heard of a Bessey clamp till last week when I looked it up on the internet, and I have been using them for 40 plus years. I suppose it's what I have always known these things as and everyone I have dealt with has also called them that.

Cheers

Ed.


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## Ulma Doctor (Aug 12, 2013)

Excellent work on the clamp!!!


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## dogbed (Aug 12, 2013)

Too bad it wasn't MADE IN THE USA. Then I would know for sure it awesome. 

All kidding aside, great work man.


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## llarson (Aug 15, 2013)

A very nice clamp, and plenty strong. Nothing beats a tool that fits your needs, and lasts.


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## donthack (Oct 1, 2013)

Great clamp!  You could advertize it as a portable arbor press!


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