CNC Shark Forum

Just ran a job of pocket and inlay boards, the inlays had the material cleared off the field with a 1/4" end mill. Mill needed to move off the edge of the board, so trying to hold tight without downward pressure. I have a 90 deg corner bracked bolted to the deck for the lower right corner, and pushed some of our wooden hold-down clamps as hard as possible against the bottom sides on the upper and left sides of the board. Worked pretty well, but the bit did nick off the top of two clamp blocks (that's why ours are all wood, not the originals!). See picture: https://1drv.ms/i/s!Ah_DERvpr7S1gP8nadfmJpOPQNLIWw

Has anyone come up with a shop fabricated clamp system that can lock a board in tight only at the bottom, and stay out of the way of the bit? I've an idea, but if someone has already invented this wheel, I'd sure like to steal the idea!

Don't seem to be pulling off the image link . . .

Thanks -

When I need to clamp something like this I will sometimes use a buscuit joiner and cut a hole in the side of the piece (if that fits with the project). Otherwise I will glue some scrap to the side of the piece and use that for clamping.

I recently saw another option, I have not use these, but I've considered purchasing them. They seem a little pricey, but a good design, and well machined from what I can seen. Again, I've not actually held them, or used them. Only seen the videos. https://lwmcnc.com/cnc-accessories/

Gordon

$19.99 replacement for the LoPro CNC Track Clamps.

http://www.rockler.com/rockler-t-track-inline-cam-clamp

sk8nmike wrote:$19.99 replacement for the LoPro CNC Track Clamps.

http://www.rockler.com/rockler-t-track-inline-cam-clamp

Dang them....they did it again! Those clamps have a "key" on the bottom so you can only exert pressure in the direction along the T-slot. They're great, but don't do a darned thing across the slots....Also, this likely isn't going to hold the wood down if there's some major pulling up from the traditional, up-cutting bit. I'd be wary of that. But oh man those do look cool!

If you want both directions, and these are just workstops, take a look at these. Not so much for buying, for seeing what I mean by "key" on the bottom restricting it to one direction in the cool one lined to above.

http://www.rockler.com/rockler-stop-kit ... ack-system

Thom

The clamps I use are made in either wood or aluminum, with a tab on one side and a pin on the other.

The tab side is used when there is room on the upper edge to hold a part down. For other situations, the pin on the opposite side would go into a shallow hole drilled in the side of the workpiece. They are low enough in profile as to not usually be a problem, as different length T bolts can be used for different material thicknesses.

That's one very nice set of underlayments. Almost don't want to call those oak boards "spoil" anything!

The clamps are way cool. Any chance there's a VCarve or similar design file you'd let others use?

Thanks, rungemach.

I bought 2 of these few days ago. Good clamping, low profile and the way the clamp move it applies downward pressure too.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1