You know what they say, "You can never have too many clamps." I beg to differ, as in the 30+ years I have spent framing, remodeling, cabinetmaking, and home-improving, I have acquired quite a few clamps.
One time, I was building a custom built-in with a curved top that required me to purchase a LOT of small bar clamps. Until I was finished building that piece, I did not have too many clamps, but ever since, It could be argued that I do have too many.
But because my clamps are neatly stored in my shop, most people never notice how many clamps I have. I found a much simpler and less elegant solution than Stumpy Nubs does in the video above, so I'm going to promote his method for this woodworking field trip.
Transcript:
I designed this adjustable clamp rack years ago for a specific purpose: to grow with my evolving clamp collection. While I built it, I learned a few lessons that can be applied to any project, not just this clamp rack—lessons that will totally make you a better woodworker.
So in this video, I'll show you those lessons while I also show you how to make this really useful rack.
The problem with clamp storage
The idea is rooted in the fact that many woodworkers start out with a few miscellaneous clamps. You may have a couple of F clamps, some pipe clamps, maybe one or two pistol grip clamps. And in order to store all these clamps in their various types and sizes, you need a rack that can be adjusted to fit and that can easily change as your clamp collection grows down the road.
This rack is designed to evolve with you. It can hold up to 40 clamps of all shapes and sizes. It'll probably be the only rack you ever need.
Below this video, I'll link to some downloadable plans with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions. Look for it in the video description or pinned to the top of the comment section.
Woodworking lesson 1: use a jig to make angled cuts
Now here's some lessons I learned while I was making it.
All the brackets required angled cuts to create triangles. Now I usually cut triangles on the band saw, but that leaves a rough edge that needs a lot of sanding. And since I had 12 of these to make, it just made sense to come up with a better way.
So I took about five minutes to make a simple jig for the table saw. I admit, sometimes it's hard to take a break from the project itself to make a separate little project like a jig. You may feel like it stalls your momentum, but it almost always pays off in the end.
Whether you're building something like this or a piece of fine furniture—even if the jig won't save you time, even if it's just for one cut and one workpiece—if it'll make the job more accurate or, more importantly, safer, you should totally do it. That is a lesson that will serve you well in this craft.
Woodworking lesson 2: make simple assembly jigs too
Here's another simple jig made for this project.
The brackets have little hooks on the back. You want that to slip over a plywood rail inside the rack carcass. Now, if the space within the hook is too tight, the bracket won't work well. So I took a piece of plywood that was equal in thickness to my rail, I clamped it in a vise, and I held my project parts in place over the end as I clamped on a stop block.
Now I can use this to assemble all ten brackets with the proper gap inside the hooks. If I hadn't taken a couple extra minutes to make this simple assembly jig, I know half my brackets wouldn't have fit properly.
Sometimes assembly jigs are as important as cutting jigs. Work smarter, not harder.
Why not use a French cleat?
By the way, I know some of you are going to ask why I designed this with a hooking bracket rather than a simple French cleat bracket.
I think a French cleat would make the bracket too easy to just knock off when you're removing clamps, which could cause them to just fall down on the floor. I think this design is much more secure.
Woodworking lesson 3: dealing with pre-finished plywood
Here's another challenge I had to overcome that was unique to the plywood I was using.
I sometimes buy pre-finished plywood for shop cabinets. It's great for that, but it's not so good for projects like this because I need good, strong glue joints—and glue won't stick to pre-finished surfaces.
So what I did was I set up a 3/4-inch straight bit in my router table, just high enough to skim off the finish layer wherever I needed to remove it for a glue joint. A dado set would have worked in my table saw, but I needed my table saw free for cutting out project parts. And it was really handy to just walk over to the router table whenever I needed it.
Woodworking lesson 4: plywood thickness matters
These rabbets were really shallow—perhaps a 32nd of an inch—but that may be enough to throw off a critical measurement. In fact, the thickness of the plywood itself can throw things off too.
I design in SketchUp, and I assume all of my material is 3/4 of an inch thick. But plywood rarely is. And that teaches another important lesson: never cut all of your parts from a cut list at the beginning of a project. Cut them out only as you need them, so you can make adjustments to compensate for things like joinery, material thickness, or small mistakes that you may have made in assembly.
Overall, this build took one day, and it only required half a sheet of plywood. I'd estimate the cost around 30 to 40 bucks. Not bad for something this versatile and that'll hold up to 40 clamps.
Like I said, it may be the only clamp rack you ever need. Grab the plans here and build one for your shop.