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My clamp rack, the one I move around in order to have close to where I’m working has become overburdened. It is holding up a lot more clamps than it was originally designed to hold. So it is time to build something new.
Once again I am using Southern Yellow Pine and Red Oak that I acquired in the spring of ’05 for free. Both are rough cut lumber that was used as cribbing for stacks of pipe for a couple of different piping projects locally. I made two feet for the rack each 24” long from a 4” x 6”…I like the Southern Yellow Pine for ease of chopping mortises and I need the practice chopping mortises. Also a pinned mortise and tenon joint is almost indestructible, and these will be heavily stressed.
This is the obligatory tools used picture. I used my homemade bowsaw to cut the corners and relief in the feet. I’m gonna have to do some smoothing on them as I’m still learning to use a bowsaw and the cuts are rough and inconsistent. Then I drilled the caster holes with my Stanley 2101A 8” brace using an Erwin 3/8” auger bit. Next I used a tapered reamer in my Stanley 965N 8” brace to taper the holes to provide a snug fit for the scavenged casters I’m using. They have a 7/16” shaft (?) and are just driven in till they fit tightly. Next up I cut my verticals 1 ¼” x 2 ½” x 72” out of Red Oak. These will be spaced at 18” to the outside edge and leaning into the center at about 5 degrees. I cut a tenon on the end of these uprights to seat them in the feet. Although the uprights will lean in I cut the tenon to be perpendicular to the feet. (Easier to cut the mortises that way.) I made these cuts with a Japanese saw, actually it is a Vaughan Bear Saw, but it’s a Japanese saw. I really like the fine kerf of a pullsaw, they just take some getting used to. I would use a good antique tenon or backsaw if I had one!
Here is the first mock-up of the verticals…
Yes, it’s gonna be tall but that will enable me to hang my 6’ pipe clamps from it without them dragging on the floor. This will be the permanent home for my collection of bar clamps, my c-clamps and some other assorted clamps. Now I need to tie the feet together; I ripped a couple pieces of SYP to 1 7/8” x 1 ¼” x 46”. I’ll put a 1 ½” long tenon on each end which will make the rack 4’-1” long. Here are some pictures of the first mortise and tenon. The little piece of red oak is a convenient ¼” thick and makes a good marking gage.
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