Pipe Clamp Mega-Wrench

Pipe clamps are well known to most woodworkers and are most commonly used to clamp pieces of wood to glue up larger panels. These clamp sets come with both a sliding tail stop as well as a stationary clamp head with acme threads and a handle to apply clamping pressure. You supply either ½” or ¾” black iron pipe, depending on what size fixture you’ve purchased.

Some of the most popular brands are Bessey®, Rockler®, and the Jorgensen® Pony® clamp line. They are readily available and the economics are good too!

But, they don’t need to be utilized only in the woodshop. In this episode, DirtFarmer Jay and his friend Bill show you how to make use of one of these clamps when doing building framing. When lumber is twisted or needs to be held in place until it can be securely fastened, a pipe clamp can come in really handy.

By tightening the clamp onto a piece of framing lumber, you can essentially create a wrench to allow you to torque or twist the lumber into place until it can be nailed or screwed in.

A couple of words of caution are in order. First, you will need to tighten the clamp head down very well to get an adequate grip on the wood. Even then, don’t put yourself or a helper in danger by being in line of where the clamp could slip off suddenly with significant force. Second, the longer the pipe, the greater the leverage you will have, and this works both for AND against you. Don’t overstress the pipe or the lumber. If you do, you can bend the pipe. ¾” pipe is stronger than ½”, but you can still bend it, so be careful. And, the more torque you apply, the more the clamp will tend to slip off. So - be careful!

If you do a lot of framing and need to grip lumber like this routinely, there are tools made specifically for this application.

Sure, you can hire a carpenter to do all of your framing projects, but don’t you just love it when you can JUST DO IT YOURSELF?