Spool Clamps

[rdale]

Hi

I'm a newbie and periodic lurker here. I built my first guitar last year at Jungle Guitars in Goa, loved it, and want to do more; to get myself started building solo I've bought Trevor and Gerard's books, and I'm embarking on a Stewmac kit build (call me a wimp). So right now I'm in the tooling-up stage.

Which brings me to my question: can anyone point to a source of spool clamps in Australia? When you factor in postage, getting them from either Stewmac or Waldron (the two online suppliers I could find) is quite expensive; and yes I could build my own, but I'm not convinced that makes economic sense either.

Any suggestions more then welcome, including advice on where to get the bits if I do decide to make my own -- I was thinking an appropriately thick dowel rod from Bunnings, but I haven't found a source of carriage bolts that are 7" long without having an unnecessarily large diameter.

R

[kiwigeo]

If you cant get long enough carriage bolts then consider using M6 threaded rod (available from hardware shops). One end can be epoxied into one of the dowel discs.

3/4" dowel cut into slices should do for the ends of the clamps. Cork sheet can be chopped up into discs.

[graham mcdonald]

Just the ordinary 1/4" imperial threaded rod from Bunnings will do cut into appropriate lengths if you can't find bolts long enough. A hex nut on one end and a wingnut on the other. An alternative to slicing up big dowels is using a hole cutter and a couple of polyethylene kitchen chopping boards as the raw material

cheers

graham

[lauburu]

+1 on threaded rod and hole cutter
I used scrap wood and glued on a cork face to each end.

[liam_fnq]

I'd be using a hole saw to make the ends from 12mm ply. That way there'd be a 1/4" hole waiting for the bolt.

[charangohabsburg]

This was my approach to the non-wingnut end of tmy spool clamps: two countered nuts, one of them pulled into a 10mm diameter recess (= "small outer diameter" of a the M6 nuts I used). I had 30mm diameter beech dowel lengths readily available, otherwise I maybe would have used even rectangular plywood disks.

Spool_Clamp-2012_D70_5406.jpg (56.2 KiB) Viewed 17162 times

Here my whole spool clamp story (too many pictures, text in Spanish - don't worry about the text, I think my explanations were not very clear, and not necessary either, the pictures above show pretty everything of this high-tech project).

[P Bill]

I used 32mm x 32mm x 600mm cedar offcuts with the cork pre glued on. Bore half the holes to suit the external dia. of the rod and half the holes to suit the internal dia. of the rod. Cut to 35mm length and screw the rod into the small hole, no nut or glue needed. You can bandsaw them octagonal if you like.

[rdale]

Thanks for all the advice!

Using poly kitchen boards for the spools is an interesting idea; I think I've seen a pic somewhere of that. Aren't these inherently less stable, though? I could imagine them getting easily distorted with just a bit too much pressure.

I assume you'd still want cork lining on the plastic.

R

[P Bill]

I think the guitar sides would distort before the poly. Spool clamps are only light duty.

[Kamusur]

Recently picked up some M6 threaded rods, wingies and hex nuts from BJ Howes Metaland at Lisarow (local supplier) and all the bits were cheaper than Bunnies.

Steve

[graham mcdonald]

I only use them for gluing backs and soundboards to the side assembly. I usually use a couple of cam clamps at the neck and tail blocks and as many spool clamps as I have or can fit on. If you have to use more than finger tight pressure on the wing nuts, you haven't got the plates properly fitted to the sides.

On a slightly different topic, there is a recently opened Masters store here in Canberra ( the Woolies owned competition for Bunnings). They stock all three types of Titebond, and the small 375ml size is only a bit over $3. They also have Gorilla Glue in small bottles and I am going to try some of that for gluing purling strips to the bottom of binding strips before bending.

Cheers

Graham

[rdale]

Re: my comment about the plastic disks distorting -- bad choice of words; I wasn't suggesting applying so much pressure that they would bend. Rather I was trying to describe my suspicion that over time they would cease to be perfectly perpendicular to the rod, and would acquire a bit of wobble, especially if one used the thinner (9mm?) chopping board material. Even the thicker stuff, which I think is 14mm, might be susceptible to this, with the metal rod 'eating away' at the plastic.

But I assume someone who has used this solution can attest to what really happens.

R

[graham mcdonald]

Doesn't matter if they wobble a bit. Remember that the doming/arching of the plates means they are not at right angles to the sides anyway. Mine are very rough and ready things which only get used a few time a year. I have small ones for mandolins and larger ones for mandolas/bouzoukis. Marcus' are a much finer version and to be admired

graham

[charangohabsburg]

Thank you Graham!
Sure, these spool clamps are some of my nicer shop made tools. I wish I had the patience and dedication to do all the jigs and tools like this.

When I made my first batch of spool clamps I also was worried about tilting of the top piece, this is why I made it taller, which is total overkill. In the next batch of spool clamps (for ukuleles) I made this top piece much shorter, it tilts a little bit (but really not much at all) and it is still overkill!



The nice thing with the shorter clamps was that I could use M6 screws with a hex head which now lies flat with the bottom of the bottom spool. The screws cost a bit more than threaded rod but besides of ending up with an even nicer spool clamp it saved me much work for not having to cut the rod lengths and for not having to tighten the countered hex nuts! This may sound like a minor issue, but remember, when using spool clamps you don't need only one or two of them!

[matthew]

I have made many spool clamps from cheap 1/4" threaded rod from bunnings, scrap timber and wingnuts. I need over 50 for a double bass.

I have found that although the round ones like Markus made might look nicer, a square-ended spool clamp is actually more useful, as it has a wider flat surface for gluing, has corners that can be useful for tight spots, and is way faster and easier to make by lopping off lengths of a square stick.

I drill out the lower end almost all way through with a 5mm drill bit and screw and glue in the 1/4 thread. The other end just slides and secured with a wingnut and washer. Face with cork or hard closed cell foam plastic (plastic doesn't stick to the glue, cork does!).

Liam, I find the spool clamp ends need to be at least an inch long to provide good stability on the thread (otherwise they wobble) so 1/2" plywood isn't going to work all that well IMHO!

[Patrick Hanna]

And, honestly, I've never been convinced that they need to be round spools. Certainly, they are much prettier tools if they are round. But that's not necessary. Mine happen to be 1" squares, faced with cork and center drilled and then with long carriage bolts threaded through them. They work perfectly well, whether using a corner to clamp, or a straight side.