Hello, I have the same style strap clamp that Dale described so well. I purchased mine at Sears a few years ago for around $25. This may not be big enough for the project you described. I also have my dad's old corner clamps. With these corner clamp it will hold stock up to 4" wide and the overall size is not a problem. Mlcs also sells band clamps with steel bands and extension bands are available. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Leavens To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 11:02 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] miters and clamps
Hi, There are wonderful manual miter saw devices which are essentially a frame you screw or bolt to a table and which hold a straight back saw. The saw runs in a pair of sort of split cylinders These raise and lower and some have a latch which holds the saw in the fully raised position. Some are fixed at 45, others can swing with détentes at significant angles, usually 15, 22.5, 30 and 45 degrees. They may or may not have threaded vice like clamps to hold the stock. These are however quite expensive but also very accurate. A really good stiff backed saw for the device is pretty expensive too but they are wonderful tools and pretty darn safe. Some can use the clamps to hold a corner while you glue and pin it too. Trouble is that it also ties up the saw. There are dozens of miter clamps but my favorite is a fairly cheap corner clamp my son ought me a couple of years ago, I will buy a couple mor some day I am sure. This is a simple strap clamp with four plastic corner molds threaded through it. One is rather larger and has a pinch device on each side to pinch and hold the strap. There is a threaded rod which draws the main frame of that corner away from the corner mold thus pulling the strap tighter from both ends. You arrange your frame or drawer or what ever, pull the strap out to go around all four corners and locate the corner blocks then tighten up the strap as you can by hand latching the ends down tight then screw the adjustable corner tight and there you go. While I measure diagonally across the corners these do usually square the corners up pretty well. Now as for a power miter box, if you don't need the capacity of a sliding compound miter saw you can buy an 8 inch simple compound miter saw for under 200 bucks. You will pay that much for a good quality manual miter saw. If your corners don't have to be good enough for total perfection as in a quality picture frame one of those saws might be just what you want. I think their capacity is about 6 inches, a 10 inch rigid miter saw will have an 8 inch capacity for only a little more. If you really need precision you will then want a mitre guillotine for tuning up those miters even after cutting very accurately. These shave very fine thicknesses off both to gain absolute perfect length and to trim away any chipping even high quality hand saws leave behind. The powered equivalent is the fixed disk sander, so far I own neither but I do have a rather wonderful blade in my sliding compound miter saw, still ... Anyway, think about a power miter saw so long as you are comfortable with it. If you are not don't take unnecessary chances. You can unplug the saw until done set-up, then plug it in, put your left hand into your pocket and operate the saw with the right, when done pull the plug. I really like those mitre saw frames for their accuracy and wonderful clean cuts every time and if I had the money and big enough shop I would probably own both types. Hope this is helpful. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 4:01 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] miters and clamps All this talk of mitre boxes has me thinking. oops. I do sound, and for a project, a current customer has purchased matching rug, and 1x3 for some corner traps in a sound room. I think he was intending to put foam behind it. Regardless, he was going to do it until his lack of hand" stopped him. I want to do this cheap, as it was an add-on to the job. It isn't more than described: 1x3 frame, where picture frame is necessary. Wrap in carpet, place rubber strips where frame meets wall and hang it. But I know I've seen "picture frame mitres" where it cutstow pieces of woodvia the same mitre slot so they both have the same exact angle. It holds them in place as if they were in use, and you mitre them one at a time from different sides of this 90dg mitre clamp. Secondly, Are there clamps that would allow the gluing of "picture frame" material, so that some good Gorrilla glue and maybe a few large staples could do this job? There will be no measurable orintended tension beyond weight of carpet on this frame. That is necessary so material can move and resist standing wave. Thanks [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
