A woodworker never has too many clamps. Trouble is, they have to be stored properly. Otherwise you either can’t find them when you need them or you’ll be tripping over them and moving them all the time; it interrupts the workflow.
Also, I’m working under the new mindset of de-cluttering my workspace. It’s the only way I’ll ever finish building out my workshop. So, with that mindset, I started working toward finding a place and means to store all the new spring clamps and c-clamps I have.
It should have been a quick and easy process of collecting the clamps, looking them over and building something to store them. The spring clamps and 2-inch c-clamps went well; quick and easy. Neither are heave or too bulking so there wasn’t much to figure out.
Then I got to the 4-inch and 6-inch c-clamps. They are heavy. To store them requires that I build something substantial but also as small as possible. I went through prototype after prototype trying to get a design that would work. It took the majority of my weekend.
I was in the workshop Saturday and Sunday and built a lot of things I can’t use. Lots of screw-ups. This is a new way to work for me because I usually design things in 3D with Sketchup then build to the drawings generated from the 3D models.
Freeform prototyping has worked on a few things but this weekend it cost me a lot of expensive materials. I’m frustrated by that and the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any good ideas for c-clamp storage on the Internet.
There’s a solution to this and I’m sure I’ll be happy with it when I find it. This is probably one of those things that, when someone visits my workshop I’ll take them to my c-clamp storage and proudly point out my greatest achievement which will cause them to wonder about my sanity.
