Thread: Toggle Clamps.

Hi Guys,
I've just come back from visiting a friend down south and having a play in his workshop. One of the thing that caught my eye was his use of some toggle clamps that he had bought from the local MSC. These were cast metal and looked quite crude but effective. So I thought that I would make a pair for myself. I've spent the afternoon drawing up my plans to fabricate a pair suitable for use on my mill and also on my press drill table. I've done a JPEG from the DFX file drawn in Qcad.

Toggle_Clamp.jpeg
I've used materials that I already have on hand so hopefully I won't have to go chasing any bits. The side plates are 3mm mild steel plate. I propose to fasten two pieces together and machine them as one. I also have a couple of foot of 6mm bright bar that I propose to use for the spindles and spacers.
The pressure pads are going to be made from 13 mm diameter brass bar. I haven't made the legs two different lengths as in the MSC ones, but should it be desired the pivot can be offset to one side and the dimensions adjusted accordingly.

Hi,

Make sure you post some pic's.

Cheers Ben.

Hello BJ,

I have a couple of pairs of toggle clamps and they they have proved invaluable. Mine are cast iron and the "nose" is fairly squat providing, in the case of my mill, some even more invaluable Z clearance. If vertical clearance was an issue for you, could you reduce the clamp height by knocking off the sharpish top corners of your side plates? I know you are trying to utilise existing material but maybe an increase in side plate thickness might also facilitate some height reduction. Also the rollers don't really need to roll. They could simply be solid steel bar plug welded in position.

108 (Large).jpg


BT

Hi Baron,

In your drawing it says "Drill & thread to suit your T nuts" under the Pivot diagram. I don't understand this. I would have thought you need a clearance hole so you can tighten the clamp down.

Dean

Hi Bob,
Those clamps look very meaty. Much more robust looking than the ones my friend had. I decided on brass rollers because his had flat brass strips round the ends.
I had thought about welding the end of the pins instead of using a press fit. My wife has bought me an Inverter TIG welder for our 45th wedding anniversary, so I'm looking forward to having a play with it.

Hi Dean,
Doh, yes you are right ! It should be a clearance hole.
I was thinking about the threads in my "T" nuts at the time. I've got "T" nuts with both M8 and M10 threads.
I will amend the drawing and re-post it.
Thanks for letting me know.

Hi Guys,
Dean kindly pointed out an error on the original drawing that I posted. So here is a corrected one.
Sorry about that.


Toggle_Clamp_amended.jpeg

Hi Guys,

Taking note of Bob's suggestion about making the side plates thicker and the way that I decided to go about making a pair of clamps, I did a redraw using the centre of the outside radius as a reference point. Also the Jpeg image seemed quite poor so I've uploaded this one as a pdf file. If anyone wants a copy as a jpeg, just shout out.

Toggle_Clamp-3.pdf

I originally was going to use 3mm plate, simply because I had some handy. I came across a length of 6 mm thick by 35 mm wide black bar. Much easier to cut with a hack saw
Anyway I hacked four 75 mm long pieces off and then squared then up on the mill.

29-06-2017-003.JPG 29-06-2017-002.jpg 29-06-2017-001.jpg

After deburring I used this cleaned up end as the reference point to mark out the positions of the five holes needed. Using a 1/4" centre drill and the hand wheel dials I started at one end and did each piece in turn.

29-06-2017-010.jpg 29-06-2017-011.jpg 29-06-2017-008.JPG 29-06-2017-009.JPG 29-06-2017-007.JPG

When I had marked out all five holes in all four pieces. I then drilled them all out 6 mm diameter. I then opened out the middle hole with a 16 mm counterbore having a 6 mm pilot.
29-06-2017-018.JPG

More to follow.

Baron, have a look at some valve rocker arms of small stationary engines. You might find some suitable forged steel toggles there.....

Good morning Joe,

It was more like the clamps took my fancy as a project rather than anything else. Since it is chucking it down at the moment, working outside is out of the question and I need to spend some time in the workshop anyway. But thanks for your suggestion.

Originally Posted by BaronJ

Good morning Joe,

It was more like the clamps took my fancy as a project rather than anything else. Since it is chucking it down at the moment, working outside is out of the question and I need to spend some time in the workshop anyway. But thanks for your suggestion.

Chucking it down? What happened to the heatwave?

Dean

Hi Dean,

The heat wave petered out a couple of days ago. Since then it has done nothing but rain here. We have had 75 + mm in the past 48 hours. At the moment the rain has stopped but it is grey and miserable, the weatherman has promised us a better weekend. Haa, where have I heard that before...

Ahh. So back to normal then? We are having a pretty dry winter. Started well with good early rains, but then it sort of petered out. Last year was the wettest winter for decades following on from a drought that lasted for many years. A drought in my area would be considered a flood in some areas, but still causes serious issues. There is a reservoir to the East of here that was down to 3% of capacity. Full it is 67.5 square km in area. It is currently at 43%. The highest I have seen it recorded.

Dean

You know there will be no weather men in heaven...................














They are all liars.

I would not like a job where your work is just a constant procession of failures.

Dean