Making a clamping board
Clamps are expensive, and most are not effective for odd-shaped items such as arches or mitered corners. Imagine if you could have an almost free clamping system that would handle such tasks (and lots more) with ease. That's the clamping board. It's one of the projects we build in the Jigs & Fixtures class.
Clamping boards can be any size and shape, made from scrap sheet stock lying around the shop. Mine isf 3/4" particle board, about 20" x 20", with a pattern of 1/2" holes drilled on 2" centers. Two adjacent sides have low fences attached so they're square to each other. Then I cut off the included corner at a 45º angle. The whole construction process took less than an hour. You can download a Google SketchUp model of it here.
I use the board with 1/2" bolts which serve as the pegs, scrap wood pads, and 1:10 wedges that do the clamping. Below you see the board holding two parts of a glued-up arch that would be very difficult to clamp in any other way.
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