Monday, June 2, 2008

Clamp for bandsaw

Mcgyver posted on the HSM forum his nifty little clamp for holding small pieces in his saw:

I was doing some work today and shot some pictures of an device I made years ago that is so simple, I almost can't call it a device. If you divided usefulness by ease of construction, it's got a huge payback.

The problem is 1) horizontal bandsaws can have the jaws pushed out of square if the clamping force is all on one side and 2) short piece are difficult to hold properly in the bandsaw vice.

All this is is a piece of crs with some holes tapped to fit my strap clamp bolts and a stop to align the work against. One shot is taking a 5/8" disk of a very short piece of 2.625 stock, the other is saving a bunch of hack sawing using the device in vertical position cutting a piece of 1/2" CR at an angle (its barely visible but I did mill a flat so the blade would start properly). Both of these jobs are a real pita without such a device.