Making "Kant" Style clamps.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the votes of confidence. :)
In this part I'm going to cover making the jaws. Apart from drilling some holes the jaws are all milling.
21-10-2017-007.JPG21-10-2017-006.JPG
The piece of steel bar was just long enough to get all eight jaws out of. I scribed five lines down the length, about equidistant and cut grooves with the corner of a 16 mm end mill. By using a "V" block to hold the work and it being just high enough to clear the top of the vise, I moved the cutter 1mm in and 1 mm down, traversing by moving the table forward (towards the handwheel). The cuts don't go right to the edge because the table wouldn't go any further back and I wasn't going to start moving the vise.

26-10-2017-002.JPG26-10-2017-004.JPG
I just turned the workpiece over to put a single wider groove down the other side for the purpose of being able to grip round work. I left one face flat an did the cross groove after cutting the bar down to the sizes needed to fit inside the clamp frames. I did those four at a time because that was all I could support on the "V" block.

I don't have a DRO on the mill and it is quite plain to see where I miscounted the mill handwheel divisions. However it doesn't alter the utility of the jaws. All the jaws were drilled and faced off using the lathe four jaw chuck and tailstock drill.

I had considered making all the jaws the same width and cutting a radius in the sides to accomodate the end of the side frame, but discounted that because if I had then I would not be able to rotate the jaws.

26-10-2017-001.JPG
Wondering around in the local scrap yard I found several of these 30 mm by M10 X 1.5 mm long nuts. So I decided to use them on the end of the clamp screw and trim the end where it came through the nut. This picture was taken before I super glued the nut to the clamp screw end. They are now drilled to take a 3/16" "T" bar.

I was going to post a picture of a completed clamp, but it seems that I don't have one. o_O

Dinner time now, back shortly.
Thanks all.
 
Hi Guys,

A lovely Sunday roast pork dinner. Traditional Yorkshire !

I said earlier that I would write some notes about designing your own clamps to suit what ever size you need. I also mentioned that all the holes bar one, lay on two concentric circles. Like many of you I have also looked at some of the designs on the web, and there are many ways of achieving the same end. This is just how I went about it.

I decided how wide and how deep I wanted the jaws to encompass. I also noted that from the central pivot point down to the jaw was the same for both legs. That led to the two circle concept.

Kant-Bob-2.jpeg
This is a drawing for a larger clamp than the one described but is just being used to show the concept.
Once you have decided on the jaw opening and the depth that you want. Using the pivot point as the center, scribe a circle going through the knee point. This circle describes the depth of the arm. Extending the from the knee to the jaw pivot gives you the width of the jaw opening.

Kant-03a.jpeg
The clamp screw will go from the knee on the "L" shaped leg to the top of the long leg, remaining on the circle. In the drawing above you will notice that there is a bend in the long leg. If you can now imagine the upper part of the long leg with the jaws at full opening, the upper part of the leg will foul the short leg. So by rotating the upper part away from the "L" shaped leg will increase the amount of clearance.

Apart from that deciding upon material, thickness and width will complete a design for almost any size clamp you want.

I'm quite sure that I will have made errors or forgotten something, so if you spot one let me know.

Thank you for looking ! Your support is much appreciated.
 
Hi Guys,

I would like to see your pictures and hear your comments about the clamps you make to my design or otherwise.

Thanks all.
 
Is there any way you can save your graphic files in another format? These seem to be jpg files which dither the edges and the dimensions are extremely difficult to read. I have had the best luck using either 16 color bmp or tiff. Really appreciate you taking the time to provide this valuable information. See attached drawing.
 

Attachments

  • Honing Fixture2.bmp
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Don't have software that can open DFX files. Sorry.
 
OK, I assume that you don't have any cad software ! I use "Qcad" and have done so for a number of years.
However I do not run any Windows software at all and haven't done since about 1991 or 2.

Go here:
https://qcad.org/en/download
There are two variants, one for 32 bit Windows and one for 64 bit Windows.
Download the one that suits your machine.
Qcad is free for personal use. There is also Qcam, which I have but not used.
Try it and see what you think. It will read and write DXF among others. Just remember that this is a 2D cad program.
 
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