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Broke a cheap clamp trying to hold a warped board, then realized I had a perfect solution in my car trunk.
That 2x4 I grabbed from the home center was twisted like a pretzel, and my little plastic clamp just snapped. Ended up using a ratchet strap from my pressure washing kit to pull it flat against the bench. Anybody else use car straps as workbench hold-downs?
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nathan_hill6021d ago
...and then that same ratchet strap is what I used to lash a broken fence gate shut for three months last summer. They're tough enough to pull a car out of a ditch, they can handle a warped 2x4. I've also got a couple of cheap cam buckle straps from Harbor Freight that live under my workbench now. They work better than any clamp I've bought under twenty bucks.
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zara_hill4621d ago
Honestly I never thought about using ratchet straps that way but it makes total sense. You can get way more tension with a strap than any clamp that costs under fifty bucks. The real trick nobody talks about though is using the strap itself as a straightedge guide. If you wrap it around a warped board and just tighten it a little at a time you can actually pull the twist out while you mark your cuts. That way you aren't fighting the wood the whole time. I keep a couple of those cheap cam straps from the auto parts store in my truck bed for exactly this. They're dirt cheap and they don't break like the plastic crap from the hardware store.
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