cheap clamps

The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

When it comes to assembling small low power rockets, there's not much call for clamping.  When we do need some pinching, the  most obvious solution is either a professional wood clamp from your Home Depot or Lowes or hardware store.

But there's a simpler solution that is already in your household.  The common clothes pin for the wash line will often be just enough to hold to items together either to glue, or to position for gluing.

Wood Clothespins - 96/Pack Thumbnail 6But this week, I stumbled upon another simple clamp.

You know those hangers that stores display their pairs of pants on the rack?  They normally have two pinch clamps on either end, along with a plastic label identifying what size or length the item is.  Some stores will remove those hangers when you buy the item and recycle them.  But during the pandemic, or with the advent of "self-check out", it's  not uncommon to wind up with such a hanger at home.


I find they are durable, and we keep them above our washer machine to hang the odd pair of socks, shorts or similar items to air dry.  

Recently, my wife had an old 1960s style hanger with brittle plastic go bad, and the hard plastic cracked...not worth repairing, but freeing up the two metal clamps that slide along the metal bar.  Instantly, I saw the possibility for my clamp system.


One of the metal clamps has become crushed at some point, and so, it took a little bending with needle nose pliers to straight it out, but they still work.  I also have my eye on one of the plastic hangers that hang over our washer...waiting for one of those to also fail.

It's another simple source for wood clamps or card stock clamping for your work bench.

Til next time, save your balsa scraps and your clamping clothes hangers!

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