“You never have too many clamps” is one of the most common phrases woodworkers told me when I asked for tool advice. Over the years I’ve collected more and more clamps; good and bad.
Once the realization that there are good and bad clamps sets in, it become important to purchase only good clamps. After some experimental purchases and usage the valuable clamps prove themselves. That’s when it becomes important to store them properly so these expensive clamps last a very long time.
There are a lot of different ways to store clamps but, not having a lot of room I tend to put them on the wall of my workshop. I don’t have room to roll a clamp cart around and, since it’s a small area, I don’t really need to. The picture above shows most of my clamps on the clamp wall.
I just added the C-Clamp Storage today because I finally decided to stick with a particular type of c-clamp. The clamps are 4-inch and 6-inch Quick Adjustable C-Clamps with Rubber Handles. They’re heavy so I only put (4) clamps on each rack.
It’s nice to have good storage for good c-clamps. Below is the album of build photos:
The drill press vise in my woodworking shop sits on the base (near the floor) below the drill press table. Since most of the work in the shop is woodworking, the vise ends up getting sawdust caked in the grease on its acme screws.
The situation is a less-than-optimum for keeping the vise in good working condition. Plus I have a new workshop philosophy to keep things stored away so they don’t get dusty and caked up. Having things in cabinets makes it much easier to clean the workshop, too. So I needed to build something.
There was some leftover Baltic Birch plywood from my Cabin Cabinet build so I decided to make a small cabinet for the drill press vise. The 3/4″ bottom of the cabinet is seated in dadoes on the side panels and the 1/4″ back panel is seated in grooves on the side panels. The top of the cabinet seats in rabbet joints on the side panels.
The door is frame and panel construction using some 1″ x 4″ clear pine for the rails and stiles with 1/4″ Baltic Birch for the panel. The hinges I used are 170º full overlay European style hinges that were left over from a past project.
Finally, I applied some Minwax Clear Satin Wipe-on Poly to seal and protect the wood. It’s easy to apply and dries fast so it suits my purpose for shop cabinets, etc. very well.
