Shopsmith Forums

Again out of my blue note book comes another project I spotted somewhere but didn't tell myself where, great hey??

Some more scraps of plywood to use up so for me this is so far a free project.

Some times it is nice to have "other" ways to clamp things and that is what this pair of units do. So you can see what I writing about I'll add a picture right here.

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They are not finished yet but I plan to use them this way for now and then as I gain some experience with them I will/might add some more slots/holes to give more clamping options.

Construction wise these are easy to make. Tops and bottoms are cut to size then dado's are cut, cut one way flip and cut second slot. The vertical members are cut to size and then everything is glued up. The end slots were done on the powerpro in router below mode.

I plan to use them on the table shown, my black and decker workmate, and on the shopsmith.

I expect them to be very flexible use wise so they may show up now and again on project I write about. What is shown should get your little gray cells working for other projects.

Next post will show the shopsmith mounting and a few idea with that.

Ed

While these clamping helper can just be used on the main table the tables with t-slots have an added advantage of being able to be clamped as shown. The use of external clamping will work but I did not post anything showing that. If that is a problem for you let me know and I'll see what I can do.

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Note the use of the slot for tightening the fastener with a screw driver.

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A work piece or sacrificial board can be clamped down using any number of clamp types. C-clamps would be another good option.

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At this point I'm thinking of drilling and sanding operations mostly but other things my show up as I get into using them.

Next post might give you a new idea that is much cheaper the then shopsmith solution so keep reading.

Ed

First we set the scene, you have just set up to do some drilling in the vertical position. You are using some long spade bits for the drilling.

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You have almost finished all of the holes when you BIL stops over. He needs these 1/16" hole drilled through a piece of plywood. He likes to talk your head off and right now you need to get some work done, and then there was the football game where his team walked all over yours. Time to get him out of here!

You get the bit, you loosen the depth stop

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OH no the table and headstock are too far apart to do the drilling! You really don't want to move the headstock or the table, they are just right for the operation you are doing. But he has just recapped the first scoring drive of his team and is about to start the second scoring drive....

You have to think fast! Oh yes those new clamping helpers! You grab one and put it on the table. Yes it is going to work! You flip the switch and start drilling his holes. Now you wish you had your old noise shopsmith, he can just keep talking now..... darn powerpro!

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OK he still stays another half hour but at least you only have to reset the depth stop and you can get back to work. No drilling required, no connecting and disconnecting and the table and head stock never had to move.

Well maybe it might work that way, who knows??

Ed

Ed,

They look like a plan I clipped in an article from the October 2009 Wood magazine. Your addition of the slots on the end and using a T-slot adapter to clamp them to the Shopsmith moves the idea from "interesting" to "must make" on my work list. I've never been completely happy with any of the approaches i've used for clamping work pieces for drilling but your setup with these looks like a great arrangement.

BobH78 wrote:Ed,

They look like a plan I clipped in an article from the October 2009 Wood magazine. Your addition of the slots on the end and using a T-slot adapter to clamp them to the Shopsmith moves the idea from "interesting" to "must make" on my work list. I've never been completely happy with any of the approaches i've used for clamping work pieces for drilling but your setup with these looks like a great arrangement.

I'm glad you posted the origin of the plan. My sketch was very incomplete, actually void of measurements and details. Since my retirement I've had to stop all of my magazine subscriptions and only rarely purchase one off the shelf. I do tend to have more details written down so I might have glanced at that copy somewhere but forgot the details by the time I got home and thought to sketch it out.

When you get yours done please post some pictures and let us know how it is working for you.

Ed

Ive had this sketch kicking around just waiting for an excuse to get them built, look very similar.

Now knowing what the name of these really is, that being "bench top risers", it was easy to find them online.

http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking ... op-risers/

My design is much shorter at 18" and mine is 5-1/4" square vs the 5 x 5-1/2 they have. My edge set back is 3/4" while the ones shown in the plans are 1". Funny thing is that my first plan was to be 5-1/2 square but the amount of scrap plywood worked out to allow only 5-1/4.

Anyway now we all have the plans available.

Ed

Looking well, so far.
Keep us posted.







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http://www.sawblade.com

I was looking through some old issues of Shopnotes this weekend, and saw something very similar to this.