Flexable Arm Clamp

TrainClown

Member
I was impressed when I read a post by Dave K a.k.a. rrkreitler on RRL forum called "N Scale Diorama Construction Thread". Here is a link to his thread.

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10558


What impressed me most, besides the level of excellent N scale modeling, were the tools he uses to accomplish that. I am always on the lookout for new ideas regarding tools and I was blown away with this flexible arm clamp. Here is a pic of the tool I mean.
20061213282_Tools01.jpg


So I wanted one too. Not having the access to the commercial product I made my own. Here it is.
200612132956_armclamp.jpg


The flexible arm is robbed from my sound system. It is from a microphone stand. The flexible neck isn't as flexible as the commercial item, so I added extra nuts to the main clamp so I can set it up in a variety of different ways. The big wing nut is to lock the arm still and to loosen it and turn it and lock it down again in a different position quickly.
I cut the mike stand shaft in half (it was just a table top model) and welded a bolt to the end of the shaft to fasten it to the clamp. I put the washers on the sides to make it easy to turn and tighten, no tools needed.

200612133732_armclampbasedetail.jpg


This is what it looks like assembled.

200612133931_armclampbaseassembled.jpg


The business end of the tool has a coupling nut welded to the end, to get a better grip. It also has a washer cut in half and welded to the sides for tightening. A long bolt has its head cut off and an angle ground on it, then welded to the mini vice-grips. The wing-nut is to secure the head in any position required. I also sharpened the tips of the vice-grips to clean them up for finer work.

200612134528_armclampvicegriphead.jpg



I wanted to have a clamp similar to the one in Dave's photo, but I was hard pressed to find one like that. Then on Boxing day I was in Canadian Tire and found this little bar clamp for $2 that was perfect. I drilled a 1/4" hole and welded 2 bolts together to make the mount. The clamp is held on with a lock-nut. This allows the bar clamp to revolve around the bolt and still be held firm.

200612135140_armclampbarclamphead.jpg


When the bar clamp is not in use, it can be stored on the main clamp as you can see in the second pic of this thread.
I also have an old flexible neck lamp I am eyeing for a second arm.

I thought this may inspire others to do something similar. What do you think?

Now I need to put this tool to work!
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TrainClown
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zedob

Member
Where were you when I was working in a fab shop? could've used a few resourceful people like you. Nice job. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

There can never be enough clamps in the world.:D
 
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