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Thread: Tips on making soldering clamps

  1. #21
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    Might have been my tips Wallace - I use cotter pins for almost all holding operations! Some just as they are and others bent into all sort of interesting shapes. I bulk buy mixed packs on ebay and they keep me going for ages!

  2. #22
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    may have been - it was a brilliant one - such a time saver and soooooo cheap in the long run. Saves me hours of work in my limited time (due to my day job!)

    mwah xxx for all the hints, tips and encouragement George xx and everyone else too!
    Last edited by Wallace; 09-10-2012 at 10:36 PM.

  3. #23
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    Do'h! Well gutted now after buying the sheet! Genius tips. (will still have a crack at making the James style ones when the sheet arrives, since I've already bought it, garghh!) Now to find someone with a bench vice and a hacksaw....
    Sian Williamson

  4. #24
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    Hi there. I've been making the James ones as I go along. I use a hacksaw to cut them and it doesn't take too long at all. Good fun really. Didi

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Didi View Post
    Hi there. I've been making the James ones as I go along. I use a hacksaw to cut them and it doesn't take too long at all. Good fun really. Didi
    that is great news Didi.... I think I am just being a fashionista as the cotter pins look like hair grips.... takes me back to my kid days. lol Just a quick pointer, never, never, ever try and open a cotter pin like you would with a hair grip! (Kirby grip to our American friends).

  6. #26
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    Whatever saw you use, the blades go much further if constantly lubricated with candle grease or beeswax. I also wonder whether in using a jeweller's saw you are using too fine a cut. 2/0, or even 1/0 stay sharp longer and I haven't bothered with platinum king as I find them too brittle.

    I too was taught to use cotter pins when I first started, but now find that compared with stainless steel, they don't keep their springiness once heated. Also cotter pins get rough and mark silver, which the stainless steel clips do less. Dennis.

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dennis View Post
    Whatever saw you use, the blades go much further if constantly lubricated with candle grease or beeswax. I also wonder whether in using a jeweller's saw you are using too fine a cut. 2/0, or even 1/0 stay sharp longer and I haven't bothered with platinum king as I find them too brittle.

    I too was taught to use cotter pins when I first started, but now find that compared with stainless steel, they don't keep their springiness once heated. Also cotter pins get rough and mark silver, which the stainless steel clips do less. Dennis.
    I do use some big pins Dennis... have taken a couple through my mill to straighten them out and then bend them again.... depends on what you get used to and how you use them... we all have ways of working with the tools we have and often adapt them to suit. I like the cotters as a preference, but that is just me (oooh, and George) too.

  8. #28
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    Well to highlight the difference is what forums are for Wallace, as long as no one takes offence. That said, if anyone tried putting a cotter pin through my Durston they would risk having their hand chopped off. Dennis.

  9. #29
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    I didn't believe some of the times quoted for making stainless steel clamps, so I have just been down to my workshop with a stopwatch and I made the clamp shown below. I used my usual 0.90mm. thick stainless steel sheet and I pierced a 4mm. wide by 100mm. long strip, using my saw frame loaded with a 2/0 size Glardon Vallorbe saw blade. I marked a strip with dividers, pierced the strip from the sheet and then bent the strip into shape for a the clamp shown below.
    The total time taken for me to make this clamp was 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
    I must also say that I have used cotter pins in the past and I found that they are not as good as using these clamps.

    James

    Click image for larger version. 

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  10. #30
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    Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	5131 Thank you James ... got round to making some of your clamps, eventually ... they are absolutely invaluable

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