There’s a funny thing in the world of fixturing. Most of the pin holes on the smaller side of the range for metalworking rasters are 5/8″ or 16mm. In the wood working world, they use 3/4″. This is frustrating as there are some nice products that would work fine for some light duty work.
So, I’m starting to work out some of the details for this new Samantha frame fixture. I want a low profile clamp. I have a neat idea for some of the beam clamps but I’m tempted by some of some cheap Chinese woodworking clamps that I see on Amazon. I ordered a RUITOOL Bench Dog Clamp. $30 is on the high side of what I wanted to spend but these could be a nice low profile option.
Of course, the shaft is just under 0.750″ and aluminum and pretty darn hollow. So I stuck the shaft in the lathe and cut it down to 0.626″ for a nice tight fit on the table. While the shaft is now pretty thin and flimsy, the clamp seemed to work really nice and kept a very low profile. I might even cut the screw down some for even more clearance.
I don’t expect that the thin aluminum shafts are going to last or stay straight. I may replace the shaft with something of solid steel. Maybe just accept that something just as simple as this can be made from scratch.
The threaded shaft was cut down a bit to make things even slicker.
Anyway, this is a nice little side piece.
