# Mobile Clamp Rack - Part 1



## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

I thought I would share some photos of a Mobile Clamp Rack that I made last year. I was getting tired of the clamps on the floor, in a corner, in a drawer or on a shelf. I was spending too much time trying to find where a particular clamp was hidden in my small shop, so I designed this rack to fit all the clamps that I have plus a few more that I was going to purchase.

The rack is organized based on the frequency of clamp usage. The clamps that are used the most are the easiest to get to. The clamps that are used the least are the hardest to get to.

I wanted the clamps to be available anywhere in my shop. I don't always to glue ups in the same location, so I wanted the clamps to be mobile. 

Photo #1 shows the front of the rack. It is constructed of 3/4" baltic birch with cherry trim to cover up the exposed plywood edges. There is white commercial grade pegboard in the center of both doors. I accidently purchased the commercial grade pegboard. After I got it home, I was very impressed with the sturdiness of the product. So, I have started using it instead of the regular 4' x 8' big box store sheets.

Notice the base of the rack. When I first designed it, the base was sagging under the weight of all the clamps and the hinge doors would not function correctly. I added another layer of 3/4" plywood and an "I" beam structure to the base. This change correctly most of the problem but the base still sags about 1/32" in the center, so the white UHMW plastic strips keep the doors functioning correctly. 

Photo 2 shows the rack with the doors swung open. The pegboard hangers hold the traditional wood clamps on the inside of the doors. The parallel clamps are held by fixtures made of 3/4" plywood with maple stops. The F-type clamps are held up by two (2) different type fixtures shown in more detail in some other photos.

Photo 3 shows the rack again with the doors swung partially open.

Photo 4 shows the back of the rack. All my pipe clamps and bar clamps are racked here. They are all held in by a wooden bar that is on the middle fixture. I don't use these clamps as much as the parallel clamps, but they still do get used. So they got delegated to the back of the rack due to low usage.

Again notice the base of the rack and the "I" beam in the center for structural support.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

*Mobile Clamp Rack - Part 2*

Photo 5 shows the bottom fixture for holding the pipe and bar clamps. The slot is sized to fit a particular set of clamps. They are made of 3/4" baltic plywood with maple stops on the ends. The stops keep the clamps from sliding out of the rack.

Photo 6 Shows the middle fixture for holding the pipe and bar clamps. It has a simple locking mechanism that holds all the clamps in position during movement. Again the fixture is made of 3/4" baltic plywood with maple stops.

Photo 7 Shows the front clamping fixture. It holds all the quick release clamps, spring clamps and short F-clamps. It consists of a 1/2" dowel that fits tightly into slots cut into 1/2" plywood strips on the band saw. The opposite side has a corresponding 1/2" hole for the other end of the dowel.

Photo 8 Shows the parallel clamp fixtures. They are made out of 3/4" baltic birch plywood with maple stops on the top fixtures that hold the clamps in place during movement. Notice to save space, the parallel clamps are stored with one head facing down and the one behind it with the head facing up. This allowed me to get twice as many clamps in the same floor space.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

*Mobile Clamp Rack - Part 3*

Photo #9 Shows the fixture used to hold the parallel clamps in the rack.

Photo #10 Shows the fixture used to hold the medium F-Style clamps in the rack.

Photo #11 Shows the fixture used to hold the long F-Style clamps in the rack. This fixture was designed to hold the clamps stacked on a rack rather than spread out. There was only so much space left and this fixture worked well. It is a little slower to get the clamp out than the fixture shown in Photo #10, but it takes up less of the wall space.

All of the fixtures are removable. They are screwed to the rack. I am pretty happy with the clamps that I have and I don't have any plans for purchasing any more. But if I have more clamp requirements in the future, I have the flexibility to remove fixtures and add new ones on the rack.

I really like this design. It has met all my requirements. If I had more wall space, I probably would have just mounted the clamps on the wall using the fixtures on the cart. The only changes that I am considering is replacing the piano hinges with three (3) butt hinges. I designed the cart to use butt hinges, if the piano hinges sag too much. So far the piano hinges are doing ok. Hopefully, they will hold up and I won't have to change them.

I hope that you have enjoyed this posting. Let me know if you have questions or comments.


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## Sorrowful Jones (Nov 28, 2010)

Nice rack..... what is the overall measurements?


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

As Tommy Mac would say, "That is wicked cool!!" You definitely use you space very well.


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## BIP (Dec 21, 2009)

Man, that makes the one I recently made look like a wreck...

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f13/mobile-adjustable-clamp-rack-52326/


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Nice job. :thumbsup:

My only concern would be that if you removed too many clamps from one of the doors the weight of the remaining clamps might cause it to tip over.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

Sorrowful Jones said:


> Nice rack..... what is the overall measurements?


26-3/4" (depth) x 27-1/2" (wide) x 65-3/4" (height) with the casters.

If you would like the Google SketchUp drawing, just let me know and I will gladly email it to you. (The modified bottom structure is not in the drawings.)


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

johnnie52 said:


> Nice job. :thumbsup:
> 
> My only concern would be that if you removed too many clamps from one of the doors the weight of the remaining clamps might cause it to tip over.


Johnnie:

I can appreciate your concern, but "that ain't going to happen".... A bigger concern is: can the piano hinges hold the weight!!! I searched for data on the piano hinges to try and determine their vertical load, since they are usually used horizontally. I only found two (2) sources and they were both pretty flakey on their testing results, so I thought that I would play it safe and design the structure to work with both piano hinges and butt hinges. If the piano hinges start to sag too much, I will just replace them with butt hinges.

Installing the piano hinges took two (2) tries. The swinging doors didn't come together they way I liked them the first time, so I removed the doors, painfully filled in all the screw holes with dowels and glue, then reinstalled the hinges with better blocking and clamps. They installed much better the second time.

Another fun thing that happened during installation was the old "measure twice, build once" adage almost got me. I measured all the clamps and put outlines into SketchUp to make sure that I was allowing the proper spacing. After I finished and I loaded all the clamps in, I realized that my 7' 6" long pipe clamps might not fit under the steel girder that runs through the center of the ceiling in my shop. The girder actually has 8' 1/2" clearance to the floor. When I rolled the cart under the girder, the tops of the pipe clamps just cleared by 1/4"!!! I was lucky that day...... 

The problem that did bite me in the a....was the weight of all the clamps. There must be 400 to 500 lbs of clamps in that rack. As I mentioned in a post above, I had to redesign the bottom structure to keep the sag to 1/32". I should have included the individual clamp weight when I measured them for spacing.....


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

BIP said:


> Man, that makes the one I recently made look like a wreck...
> 
> http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f13/mobile-adjustable-clamp-rack-52326/


Thank you for the compliment, but you are being very harsh on yourself! You have a very functional clamp rack that looks cool, too! 

When I was searching for clamp rack designs, I actually think that I saw yours. Unfortunately, because of my small shop with too much equipment in it, I needed to make my floor space be as efficient as I could. There are days, when I have to move my mobile clamp rack to another location, that I wonder if I could design a better solution. So far, I haven't come up with a better design. It just works they way I need it to work. When I need to use my jointer, I just roll the mobile clamp rack to the other side of the room and use my jointer. When the jointer goes back to its storage area, the mobile clamp rack moves back in front of it.

Enjoy your clamp rack!


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## Seajay62 (Apr 16, 2014)

*GREAT PROJECT! *I built my mobile clamp rack years ago based on Norm's video but I need to update it. I really like your design so I'd like to take you up on your offer to email a copy of your sketch-up drawing.
Joe


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## mobilepaul (Nov 8, 2012)

That's a great clamp rack, OR. It looks like I will need to steal this idea.

Paul


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

*SketchUp File*

Please find attached the SketchUp file. There are a couple of things that are not included in the drawing:

1. The door hinges are not included in the drawings. When I completed the drawing I couldn't decide between using a piano hinge on each door or a couple of butt hinges. I thought I would try the piano hinge first. If I was to do it again, I would use three (3) butt hinges on each door. The weight of the clamps really make the door sag about 1/16". I may get some time later this year and change the piano hinges to the butt hinges.

2. The bottom support structure is not included in the drawing. I completely under estimated the weight of my clamps when I designed the bottom. The single layer of 3/4" plywood was flexing over 1/8" in the middle with the design in this drawing. With the flex of the hinges and the plywood bottom totaling over 1/4", the doors were not closing correctly.

I have since added another layer of 3/4" plywood and some "I" beams on the bottom to keep the bottom from flexing at all. When I get a break from my current project list, I will update the SketchUp drawing and re-post it.

3. I used UHMW (Ultra-High Molecular Weight plastic) to help the doors close easier. There is a piece of UHMW mounted to the topside of the bottom below each door.

Note: A little tip that I learned about pegboard while acquiring materials for this project. There are two different grades of pegboard sold at HD. The large 4' x 8' sheets are a low grade material that does not last very long. I had installed these in my garage in 2008 and they are falling apart. There is a "tempered" "commercial" grade pegboard, that my local HD sells in 2' x 4' sheets. It is much higher quality and has two (2) good sides. This is what I used for this project.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Eric


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## Seajay62 (Apr 16, 2014)

Thanks for sharing.

Joe


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