Starrett type clamps

These clamps are Based on Starrett No 160 tool makers clamps whilst I wouldn't call these clamps tool makers quality due to the constraints of home workshop construction they will be more than adequate for most home workshop. I made them as a perfect matching pair to enhance there usefulness.

There has been a number of discussions on the forum regarding these clamps with a lot of interest shown in them, the original Starrett clamps can be picked up on flebay they go for about £30 to £50 pounds and Starrett still sell them for around the same price.

Any way this is my attempt

And to show them as to one of their uses.

They are made from standard size mild steel bar Body 1"*5/8" jaw 5/8" Sq bolt M8. Starrett fixed the jaw with a cerclip but I've used a M3 keep screw.

Stew

Very useful and cost effective nice job.

David

You’ve made a nice job of those Stewart.

Nice

Thanks for your comments and interest chaps

They wern't that dificult to make.

To make the bodies a matching pair I simply bolted them together and machined them as one. I was unsure just how much the cold rolled bar would distort due to releasing the stresses:- so I roughed them out first and let them stand for a couple of days then I skimmed the base and top flat this took out the distortion.

Roughing out

Finishing off body

The jaws couidn't have been easier you just have to drill the M3 hole for the keep first before drilling 6.5 using the self centerng four jaw chuck

I used a M8 coach bolt to fabricate the screw and welded the knurled head in place.

Total material cost about £6 and not much more than a days job

Drawing

Stew

I have inherited an original clamp but the smaller jaw had not survived.

The jaw is held onto the screw with a little spring.

I'm minded to make a pair as described in the current issue of MEW, but really don't understand why the drawing is complicated by converting all the dimensions to millimetres.

MC Black

Could be because many model making and home workshop people outside the USA now work in metric, and many can only buy materials and fasteners in metric.

If you want to work in inches, you could print the drawing and convert the sizes shown by dividing by 25.4.

There are only a few dimensions - it is not a big task to convert the drawing. But why not use the project as a way to learn something about metric? You may really enjoy working with metric units and threads.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

I find it very hard to believe that anybody making the clamp will be working to the nearest 1/100th of a millimetre - which is what "15.88mm" suggests.

I don't have any difficulty in working to dimensions in either Imperial or Metric and have inherited a huge quantity of Imperial tooling from my late father (who was a consultant engineer) - which I have supplemented with metric sizes.

The Technical Drawing O'level exam paper that I sat as a teenager was the first year that dimensions were in Metric.

It's my experience that most companies that supply metal for the Model Engineer market sell Imperial sizes and even those who offer metric don't offer 15.88mm Square bar! - unless you know better.

With best wishes and thanks again.

MC Black

Your metal supplier may in fact have 15.88 mm bar - craftily marketed as 5/8" or .625" bar

I also doubt many people would work to the last .001 mm for a clamp, but digits are cheap on calculators today, so not a major stumbling block to leave them on dimensions, usually.

Personally I am grateful to Stew for making and sharing the drawing, as I am not likely to own one of the original clamps to be able to measure it, and as far as I know no other drawing of them has surfaced.

There are a lot of people selling imperial material but they don't describe it in imperial, they show the metric size, we we all know it's really 5/8", same with tooling, I've a well know brand name drill that has 9.53mm on the shank.

Should be simple enough to either convert it to nominal metric sizes or back to imperial measure be that decimal or fraction, don't even need a calculator for that as anyone who has a bit of experience will know what the metric equivalent of the common Nominal imperial sizes are.

--------------------------------

many of Stuarts designs are aimed at beginners and thos enew to the hobby who more than likely have been educated in the metric system and simply don't understand imperial so drawings are dimensioned in metric and they will have no problem buying 15.88 x 25.4mm bar from the ME suppliers though it will be listed as 5/8 x 1" The original would also have been made to imperial dimensions so Stew is staying true to the original

Edited By JasonB on 15/06/2020 07:45:25

Thanks for all your interest in these clamps chaps

I actually used imperial bar so 5/8" is indeed 15.88mm I'm sorry this may have confused a few of you. But its your workshop so your free of the chief inspector you can make things to any size you want as long as you exercise a little gumption.

I use the metric system for one simple reason:- its the industrial standard for most of the world this makes metric tooling and parts extremely cheap when compared to imperial stuff a fact that is very important in most home workshops.

I try to make all my designs simple and cost effective for the beginner as Jason said, but I do find it difficult at times getting thing down to the beginners level, especially that these days youngsters are taught very few basic practical skills, consequently things us oldies think are obvious go over peoples head. My own son whose a medical doctor phoned me up the other day for advice on how to shorten a curtain rail using a hack saw. I had to explain to him the different types of saw how to tension the blade and how to keep the cut straight. I can assure you that he didn't have a neglected childhood, like may of his peers he just wasn't interested in engineering thing, but he did ok despite this.

Stew

Two points to add. First, I think mrpete222 made a series of videos to produce a vise to the starrett dims. Secondly, children - my daughter has tools and uses them, while my son has had no interest in making/repairing until recently (being idle due to the virus) when his son has shown a definite interest in making things. My son and daughter are both over 40 years old.

Thank you for the pointer towards mrpete222. I have watched the first of the nine parts.

Am I correct in deducing that two people use the Nom de Plume (or should that be Nom de Clavier?) of Tubal Cain/

Tom Walshaw died over 20 years ago and the film is only a few years old.

Your Grandson is lucky to have somebody like you who can help him make things.

MCB

English and American. Likely why he now posts his videos user name ‘mrpete’.

A far better youtube poster than many out there.🙂 Neither does he do paid tool ‘reviews’, as far as I know, so his content does not include the ‘influencer’ type of garbage that some include.

Edited to add, I’ve not seen my grandson for 4 months, or so!  We are ‘grounded’ as my wife has needed to ‘shield’ and isolate since the covid arrived as she is in the most at risk group (no spleen and on heart tablets).

Edited By not done it yet on 15/06/2020 11:45:46

For anybody who really wants to use Imperial units, Starrett kindly provide a handy drawing of the 2" version, although I would be tempted to take advantage of the +/-1/64" stated tolerance to replace the 17/64" thread with 1/4" or 9/32" (or even perhaps M7, modelling in a scale officially described as "14 to 16mm to the foot" means I cannot afford to be fussy).

Brian G

Very nice job. I really enjoy making tools but mine are far from tool makers quality

Hi Stew,

Thank you for sharing your design and build log. I found that attaching the two pieces of stock using cyanoacrylate resisted all milling operations and a few minutes in boiling water breaks the bond when required. Instead of welding the knurled knob onto the leadscrew I used Loctite 638 bearing retainer into a slip fit, which has never failed, even on the crankshaft of my power hacksaw.

Andrew.

Thanks for your feed back and tips Andrew I never thought about sticking them together I've experimented with two way sticky tape but with mixed results:- loctite 638 is certainly good stuff and will hold the knob in place my welding them in place is a good example of over kill. Any chance that you could post a picture in the thread of your clamps

Stew

Will do, when I get the jaws finished - I am determined to implement the ball end leadscrew with circlip attachment.

Edited By Andrew Entwistle on 16/06/2020 20:56:37

We used to make these as a milling exercise at school. Some were from 2" square down to 2" x 1". Some had loose jaws, some sliding jaws fixed from below, some had grooves to hold round stock for cross drilling. The important bit is to have the screw above centre to give downward pressure on the work. These vices can also be used on their sides.

If you machine a groove down each side then it can be held down with clamps. I have a pair(???) of Mole grips that come with a threaded spigot that can be bolted down onto the drilling machine table to hold the vice securely and safely.

To prevent drilling into your vice protect it with thin ply or better still mdf held down with double sided adhesive tape.

superglue is fine for light cuts but chemically clean both surfaces first. One task was to write a program to mill a maze game to take a 3mm ball bearing on a dedicated cnc wood mill out of 12 mm mdf held down with strips of double sided tape. No accidents.