Give Your Pipe Clamps Unlimited Reach

Wire system gives pipe clamps unlimited reach

 

Once while I was gluing multiple pieces of edging onto an octagonal table, the crisscrossing pipe clamps kept interfering with each other. A few years later I figured out a way to adapt the clamps that not only solves my original problem but, more importantly, lets me extend the clamps to almost any length. This method allows just a few clamps to replace a whole stack of pipes of different lengths. And the whole system fits into a shoebox.

I mounted the jaw assemblies from the original clamps on shorter pipe sections and connected those with 1/8-in.-thick steel cable. Then I attached cable stops at intervals along the wire, locking them in place by swaging them (flattening them slightly) with hammer blows. To capture the stops, I turned wood plugs that fit into the ends of the pipes. The length of the clamps is adjusted by sliding a cable stop behind a plug and then tightening the clamp screw as usual.

I cut the plugs from a 3/4-in.-dia. dowel and turned their smaller diameter on my lathe. Then I drilled a hole through the middle of each plug and stood it on end to cut the slot on the bandsaw. If you don’t have a lathe, run a centered screw into the end of the plug, cut off its head, chuck the screw in a drill press, and use a file to reduce the diameter.

I used old garage-door cable for my clamps, but I recommend that you use new stainless-steel cable. You can find it on Amazon, along with the “steel-cable stops,” which are made of aluminum and are also called “crimping stops.” The length of the cable is up to you.

The pipes are 12 in. long, threaded on both ends, and sold as “pipe nipples.” The length gives you plenty of room to slide the fixed clamp jaw back and forth.

—Richard Tendick, Lakeville, Minn.

 

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