Built my own cam clamps, won't hold clamping pressure

[jeffrodite]

Hello everyone. This is my first post here, and I look forward to many more. Well, I built a few cam clamps in my home shop over the past couple days and they look great. Now here is where the issue comes in: they don't hold the clamping pressure at all(which cancels out the blinding beauty of them if they ain't worth wood they're made with )! Used maple stock for the jaws, and 1/4"x1" oak for the bar. The lever is also made of maple, and everything is fastened w/dowels and glue. Cut my own mortise on the jaws using my drill press and some chisels/files. The sliding jaw does slide freely, but may just be a bit snug. Could this be the source of my zero pressure? The lever flips nicely and the cam is moving just fine. I could post some pics, but any advice would be greatly appreciated...

[tippie53]

I think once we see some pics we can see what happened. I am sure it isn't that bad

[B. Howard]

Pics would help. I make all my own clamps. It sounds like your cam is not caming. The hole in the cam lever needs drilled off center so that it pushes the tongue up as you move it. I seem to be out of replacement cams for mine so here are some pics of an assembled clamp, hopefully you can see what I mean.

[jeffrodite]

Heeding the advice of a novice named John H, I moved the hole in the lever and all is well.....just need some cork. I will add some images soon....

Who is John H?

[jeffrodite]

Senor Hall. Here are some pics of the clamps, they turned out pretty well. Still need to add the cork for grip. Problem is, I feel the nagging need to make a bunch more. So it begins...

[jeffrodite]

Pics would help. I make all my own clamps. It sounds like your cam is not caming. The hole in the cam lever needs drilled off center so that it pushes the tongue up as you move it. I seem to be out of replacement cams for mine so here are some pics of an assembled clamp, hopefully you can see what I mean.

Brian, Thanks for the advice. Spoke to somebody yesterday who told me the same thing. The hole was already drilled off center, just not nearly enough. Popped the old cams out last night, made new fatter ones w/ a more offset hole, now they work like....well....new.

[tippie53]

nice looking clamps indeed. Do a tutorial on them and post for the fellow members . They look great.
We love to see others stuff. We share here. Well at least most things we share.
beer in belly
remote for telly
those we don't touch

[jeffrodite]

Will do John. I will break them down tonight, take some better photos, and give all the specs I used.

[nkwak]

They look good. I tried making a few out of oak and burned up the blade on my little Ryobi bandsaw so that when it came time to cut out the cams I nearly caught the wood on fire. I opted to try the "camless cam" method. They still don't work so well though.



Next time I'll use maple as it is slightly softer than oak. I'm looking forward to seeing the specs.