03-02-2016, 09:19 AM
Recently I got the itch to do a little metal fabrication and decided to finally tackle the problem of storing my pipe clamps. They had been hanging around here and there, high and low, in the shop for a few years now and I was getting tired of them getting in the way. I decided to weld up a pipe clamp rack. I settled on a caddy design but I wanted it simple, fool proof and fast to use. I also wanted it to secure the clamps so they can't fall out if the caddy is bumped or moved around. Here is what I came up with...
Since pipe clamps have a simple pipe on one end I figured a sleeve design would work great. Now to find pipe for the sleeves. I did some measuring and found that for 1/2" and 3/4" black iron pipe a great sleeve would be 1" and 1-1/4" metallic conduit. The conduit is thinner walled then full pipe so it's lighter but still thick enough to weld. The pipe clamps fit into the sleeve with just enough extra room to allow for easy entry but tight enough so the clamps don't wiggle around too much. In fact, the 5 footer only moves about 3/4" at the top when moving side to side.
I bought a few sticks of conduit of each size and got to work on the fabrication. First, I cut 6 sleeves at 9", 12", 15" & 18" To hold the sleeves in perfect alignment and spacing while welding I made jigs out of plywood with my dado blade. These allowed easy clamping to the pipe and kept the spacing.
next, I welded a frame of 1" angle iron to the bottoms. Notice how the angle only covers a portion of the sleeve. This allows an exit for sawdust or other debris that falls into the sleeve.
Next, came 1" flat stock to tie the tops together. I used 1" angle on the taller sleeves and 1" flat on the shorter as they would receive less bending force from their clamps.
Next came a couple 1/2" bolts holding lawn mower wheels. For the front legs I used 1/2" black pipe segments for strength.
Finally, I made handles out of 3/4" conduit. I used the conduit to keep them lighter and I left the tops open so that in case they bent too much I could insert a dowel or some sort of stiffener. It turned out that they are plenty strong as is with no bending during use.
I was unsure of how stable the caddy rack would be. If it was too top heavy I had planned to form up and encase the bottom 4" of the sleeves in concrete. But, after loading it up it is very stable. Even when tilting it back to move it is controllable and not too top heavy. No concrete ballast needed.
Hope you enjoyed the build.
Since pipe clamps have a simple pipe on one end I figured a sleeve design would work great. Now to find pipe for the sleeves. I did some measuring and found that for 1/2" and 3/4" black iron pipe a great sleeve would be 1" and 1-1/4" metallic conduit. The conduit is thinner walled then full pipe so it's lighter but still thick enough to weld. The pipe clamps fit into the sleeve with just enough extra room to allow for easy entry but tight enough so the clamps don't wiggle around too much. In fact, the 5 footer only moves about 3/4" at the top when moving side to side.
I bought a few sticks of conduit of each size and got to work on the fabrication. First, I cut 6 sleeves at 9", 12", 15" & 18" To hold the sleeves in perfect alignment and spacing while welding I made jigs out of plywood with my dado blade. These allowed easy clamping to the pipe and kept the spacing.
next, I welded a frame of 1" angle iron to the bottoms. Notice how the angle only covers a portion of the sleeve. This allows an exit for sawdust or other debris that falls into the sleeve.
Next, came 1" flat stock to tie the tops together. I used 1" angle on the taller sleeves and 1" flat on the shorter as they would receive less bending force from their clamps.
Next came a couple 1/2" bolts holding lawn mower wheels. For the front legs I used 1/2" black pipe segments for strength.
Finally, I made handles out of 3/4" conduit. I used the conduit to keep them lighter and I left the tops open so that in case they bent too much I could insert a dowel or some sort of stiffener. It turned out that they are plenty strong as is with no bending during use.
I was unsure of how stable the caddy rack would be. If it was too top heavy I had planned to form up and encase the bottom 4" of the sleeves in concrete. But, after loading it up it is very stable. Even when tilting it back to move it is controllable and not too top heavy. No concrete ballast needed.
Hope you enjoyed the build.
WoodNET... the new safespace
I have the 16 K Bodies in the background and 60 F style clamps elsewhere so I doubt there will be many more pipe clamps in my future.
