Work holding clamps

CWret

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At the meetup we got onto a short discussion on work holding toe clamps and @Stuart Samuel showed me a marketplace add. With his help, thank you Stuart, I followed up on it and Monday I came home with these things:
I got a pair of each of the clamps shown in this pic:
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The toe clamp (bottom left, red arrow) is available at KBC for $133.84 each. The pair I got are in near perfect condition.
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IMO: I paid a fair price for one of these toe clamps and all the rest of the items were just along for the ride home.
Here’s a better pic of the smaller arm hold downs. They are identical and made in Canada (model 625)
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The larger ones (both model 750) are different castings, one made in Canada and one made in USA.
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Also got a half dozen smaller hold down arms
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Also these (next pic) monster hold down arms. Rather big for me, but man alive, are they ever sweet tuning forks (grandkids will love ‘em)
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These stacked 1/8” pieces allow you to easily adjust the height of your support (post) at the opposite end of the hold down arm. Cool - I’ve not seen them before (James Morton made in Canada)
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The back pair are 3.75” tall. The front ones are 2” and 3” tall.
In the next pic I have the back two set at 2.75” and the front two set at a height of 1.5”. (In the middle of this pic are a couple of the stepped support posts that came with my bar clamping kit.) They needed some cleaning. They were full of grit and crud when i got them. They work smoothly now after a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner and some oil.
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Also included in the haul is this 4-5-6 angle bracket.
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I have a shop made pair like these that are ground to size, they come in handy from time to time. Good score, and I wouldn't rule out those big hold downs just yet, there always seems to be that one project that is made possible by having just the right tool in the tickle trunk.....
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
That's a pretty nice Haul. Wish I had all of those. Those folding shims are also handy for packing up the other side of the vise when you need to hang a small part out of the side. One of the things I hope to find in a toolbox haul someday. I'm too cheap to buy them, and to lazy to make them.
 

Susquatch

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Monday I came home with these things:
I got a pair of each of the clamps shown in this pic:

The top ones are what I call Bessey Clamps.

It might be quite useful to make special T-Nuts for them that provide compression clamping so you never have to worry about using them. Sounds like the perfect job for you.......
 

CWret

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Yes - they were new to me but I found them on the www as Bessey clamps. Good design, simple and effective is good.
Yea - have special T nuts already in my head. Just need to get-a-round-2-it
 

Susquatch

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Are they genuine Bessey? If so, they are also worth a small fortune. Paint them bright yellow!
 

CWret

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What paint is left on my clamps is bright yellow. A web search of Bessey clamps seems to show they are related to the James Morton clamps that I got.
The Bessey JMC-501 is called a self-positioning strap clamp. I believe the JMC stands for James Morton Clamp. The 501 is the size (that is a 5” clamp height capacity like the yellow one in my first photo above). Not really worth a fortune Susq (since not true Bessey) but it would seem reasonable to get (at the very least) 100$US on eBay for the 4 of them.
So yes - I guess it was a good day!

 

Susquatch

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As always, my concern with big stuff like that is tension loading. The bigger they are, the more they span, and the higher the leverage gets.

I generally like the Bessy Tite-Hite clamps but I won't even have them in my shop without a compression clamp system (yes, I am paranoid - I have boys that visit and use the shop). So I had a really good look at my mill bed trying to figure out how to get a long headed T-Nut in there. I think I'm limited to 1-1/2 inches long. Any bigger and I'd need to take the X handles off to get it into the T-slot. Another reason to let you figure it out...... LOL!
 

CWret

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I think I'm limited to 1-1/2 inches long. Any bigger and I'd need to take the X handles off to get it into the T-slot. Another reason to let you figure it out...... LOL!

The longest nut i can get in is 2.5” and no option to remove x handle end plate.
But that a lot better than a 1” long std nut. Also my custom nuts are a tight fit for width too - which will also help.
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Thinking that I’ll also machine off some of the middle of the nut so that the nut engages only on the outside edges of its 2.5” length
Not as good as compression - but with the long nut and minimal torque on the bolt (say 25ftlb) and that’s about the best i can do.
 
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