Clampage...

It's often said, quite rightly that you can never have too many cramps, so when Steve Maskery produced this little clip about making Luthier's Clamps, I thought I'd have a go.

After all it looks easy enough...if you pay attention to Steve's words of wisdom.

Which I didn't, unfortunately.

The first three attempts were a hideous catalogue of errors too numerous to mention but included such outright gems as:

Getting that long saw cut in the wrong place.
Having the movable jaw glued to the stock, instead of sliding on it.
Drilling the 20mm clearance holes in the jaws so they were 10mm out of sync on each jaw (don't ask me how I did that one)
Drilling holes in the wrong place.
Failing to remove glue from bits that slide together.
Fitting a thick centre piece for the fixed jaw, when it should have been a thin bit.

You'll no doubt be surprised and absolutely delighted that after four attempts, I managed to make one that looked half-decent.

The other three are now occupying space in a land-fill somewhere...