51.Push/Pull Woodworking Toggle Clamp

51.Push/Pull Woodworking Toggle Clamp

51.push/pull woodworking toggle clamp

Toggle clamps don’t get the attention that their two-jawed cousins do, and many of us don’t even think about them until we encounter a situation where they can help prevent hand strain.51.push/pull woodworking toggle clamp They have a small footprint, significant clamping force and offer a choice of push/pull or straight line action that makes them ideal for jigs, tooling fixtures, assembly applications and other workholding solutions where quick side mount hold-down clamping is required.

If you’re making cope cuts on a curved workpiece like a door rail, it can be difficult to hold the piece securely with your fingers. Toggle clamps make the job much easier, because they can be mounted to a spacer block and used to pin the workpiece down against it.

When routing curved workpieces on a router table, the resulting cope cut can cause your fingertips to be dangerously close to the bit. To avoid this, you can use a simple jig that consists of a base and a spacer block, with a pair of toggle clamps mounted to the spacer. The jig can then be moved to the next section of the workpiece and the toggle clamps can be used to hold it down against the template, so you can safely route the pattern on all the pieces.

Cutting tenons on a table saw is easy enough with the right jig, but freehanding the workpiece in front of the blade can lead to accidental kickback or binding the blade against the fence. To avoid these problems, you can make a simple tenoning jig from scrap wood and screw a couple of toggle clamps to it to secure the leg workpiece against one of its angled faces. The jig is then ready to slide into the saw and produce perfect tenons every time.

Pneumatic power push/pull toggle clamps are similar to manual ones, except that they operate with compressed air and have a toggle-lock safety mechanism that stays mechanically locked even without a pressurized supply of air. The manufacturers of these units typically publish data tables that show a maximum calculated exerting force at which the clamp can be safely held in its locked position. They are also available with a range of base mounting options, including flange, narrow flange and solid.