Getting More Out Of Your Woodworking Pipe Clamps:
In my world of finish carpentry and remodeling pipe clamps are a necessity when building bookcases, mantles and built-ions.
Pipe clamps (sometimes called bar clamps) work by attaching clamping mechanisms onto a standard size gas pipe. Wood working pipe clamp sizes come in 3/4″ pipe and also 1/2″ diameter.
Wood Working Pipe Clamp Sizes
You can attach the clamp mechanism onto any length of pipe to create clamps of almost any size.
But unless you have a huge shop, storing long lengths of pipe can be difficult and cumbersome to work with.
Extending Pipe Clamps
A nice way around this problem is use pipe union couplings.
Couplings or unions are cheap, usually a couple of dollars, and they allow you to connect pipes together to make increasingly larger clamps.
I have a bunch of 4-foot and 2-foot pipes and with use couplings I can combine them and increase the size of my clamp as needed.
No need for storing long and larger clamps.
Storing Pipe Clamps
One can never have enough pipe clamps but having them lay around the shop is not only a trip hazard but it looks messy. The best way to store pipe clamps is to hang them on a custom made wall bracket.
I recently made a bracket with scrap wood from my shop that holds pipe clamps securely and neatly. Read: How To Make A Pipe Clamp Storage Rack
