# Clamp Refurbishment



## Steliz (25 Jun 2018)

I recently bought 5 second hand metal clamps manufactured by a company called Blackspur. Apart from needing a general cleanup they also need to have the turning handles and the pins replaced as these have been lost and substituted with bolts. One of them still has the original bits but the handle is bent.












Does anyone know where or if I can buy replacements? I could make some but I'm not equipped with tools for that and I would have to buy them specifically for this.

Cheers, Steve


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## ED65 (25 Jun 2018)

Do you care about the looks or just need new tommy bars and if they don't match the original that's okay?


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## Steliz (25 Jun 2018)

I'm not bothered about the looks just the functionality. The replacement bolts are threaded all the way and will damage my delicate hands!


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## AndyT (25 Jun 2018)

Blackspur is about the equivalent of Silverline, I think, so don't agonise over it.

Easy suggestions: add an offcut of copper pipe over the threads on the bolts. Or several layers of string. Or gaffer tape.
Or use some suitable size big nails. For the new ends, wind some thick wire tightly round to make a lump, then solder it or add some epoxy or similar.

Or just buy some better clamps!


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## Steliz (25 Jun 2018)

OK, I thought it might be a simple matter to find suitable replacement parts but, barring that, I would rather make the bits myself than 'Heath Robinson' it with string and duct tape.

If I could afford better clamps I would have bought better clamps.


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## ED65 (25 Jun 2018)

Beefy nails with the pointy end crimped was going to be my suggestion as the fastest and easiest way to do this. You can also make an end cap using a suitable epoxy compound.

A friend has replaced a couple of smaller tommy bars with spare Allen keys, with a blob of steel-filled epoxy for the end of the long part. Looks a bit odd but works well.


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## novocaine (26 Jun 2018)

no spares I'm afraid.

for me a couple of 6" nails, cut the head off, stick it in the chuck of your drill and use a file to form a shoulder at each end about 10mm long by what ever you think is a sensible radius that you a drill to match. a couple of 9" nails and cut them in to 8mm pieces and drill a hole through the middle. push on to the shoulder and peen the end of the nail over with a peening hammer. do it neat enough and you'll be hard pressed to tell. no welding, no soldering no, well no really hard work that can't be done in any workshop with really simply tools.


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## AES (27 Jun 2018)

+1 to novocaine. Good exercise with the ball pein hammer (forming the ends).


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## novocaine (27 Jun 2018)

thanks for the spelling correction. 

It didn't look right but for the world of me I couldn't remember how it was spelt. I'd claim it's old age but I think I'd be chucked off here if I said I was old. :lol:


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## AES (27 Jun 2018)

Not an intentional correction novocaine, I really do believe that communication is the thing, and your post was perfectly clear. I'm just one of those boring old pedantics who, quite accidentally, and usually without too much effort, can just spell most words correctly 1st time off  

Still back in apprentice days, us "juveniles" were often having fun about ball peins being a pain in the balls and Warringtons making you cross if you accidentally hit your thumb with the cross pein - and let's NOT start off about "returning Ohm by a short circuit on a stolen kilocycle!


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## Steliz (27 Jun 2018)

Thanks for the suggestions, I like the 6" nail idea so I'll have a go at that.

Now I just need some nails and a ballpein hammer!


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## Dalboy (27 Jun 2018)

I would have thought it cheaper and less time consuming to just go and buy new blackspur clamps. Time you could be using more wisely


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## Steliz (27 Jun 2018)

I'm not sure you have the right idea about which clamps I have.

I bought 2x 6ft, 2x 5ft and 1x 4ft T bar metal (and very heavy) sash clamps so, definitely not cheaper.


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## ED65 (27 Jun 2018)

Dalboy":3lo4ddri said:


> I would have thought it cheaper and less time consuming to just go and buy new blackspur clamps. Time you could be using more wisely


Sometimes repairs aren't justifiable in any sort of economic sense, you do them because that's what the tool needs to get it workable or for you to be satisfied with it. And maybe just because you can; as I sometimes put it, the man who doesn't restore an old tool has no advantage over the man who can't (with apologies to Sam Clemens).


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## sunnybob (27 Jun 2018)

Black spur was /is the very cheapest line of tools. I had the misfortune of buying some of them over 20 years ago (maybe even 30), they didnt last too long. any iron bar will work, its bound to be stronger than the originals.


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## AES (27 Jun 2018)

I'm in ED65s camp here - repairing something just because you can, and if it's a bit of a challenge, is something I'm rather fond of myself. I take sunnybob's and dalboy's point though - the time could perhaps be "better" spent, I don't know the quality of those clamps.


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## memzey (27 Jun 2018)

Stop knocking Stelizs’ cramps you lot! The guy just wanted some pointers on how to sort out a tommy bar and he ended up with a bunch of us telling him they were pants anyway! Are we cramp snobs on this site all of a sudden (is that even a thing)? Anyway more power to your elbow Steliz - I also hate to throw something away if I think it can be fixed. 

PS really like the idea of using the gert big nails and peining the ends on. Very smart.


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## sunnybob (28 Jun 2018)

I didnt really "say" the clamps were pants, but I did say they were sunday market stall quality (thats the only place I ever saw them). :shock: 

Its like restoring old cars, are you doing it to make them more valuable? Or are you doing it because you really have no other option? =D>


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## novocaine (28 Jun 2018)

They maybe cheap but they are what is at hand and they are adequate for the task, repairing them costs nothing but time and if time is something you can afford to spend (it's a hobby for most) then repair away. ok, in this instance repairing them is going to cost a few pennies for a couple of nails and a couple of quid for a peining hammer. nice to have a new tool and learn a new skill though, so still seems like a winner to me.


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## Dalboy (28 Jun 2018)

memzey":3hwb3rfq said:


> Stop knocking Stelizs’ cramps you lot! The guy just wanted some pointers on how to sort out a tommy bar and he ended up with a bunch of us telling him they were pants anyway! Are we cramp snobs on this site all of a sudden (is that even a thing)? Anyway more power to your elbow Steliz - I also hate to throw something away if I think it can be fixed.
> 
> PS really like the idea of using the gert big nails and peining the ends on. Very smart.



My comment was on the assumption that they were G clamps not sash clamps and I hold my hand up to getting that bit wrong


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## ED65 (28 Jun 2018)

memzey":3nmalfju said:


> Are we cramp snobs on this site all of a sudden (is that even a thing)?


Not just just all of a sudden. Goes way back.

(And isn't just confined to clamps).



Dalboy":3nmalfju said:


> My comment was on the assumption that they were G clamps not sash clamps and I hold my hand up to getting that bit wrong


But even if they were Gs, the pic shows square threads (or possibly Acme), not bottom-of-the-barrel V-threading. If they get that bit right how bad can the rest of the clamp be? Don't answer that, I know how bad the rest can be


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## Steliz (28 Jun 2018)

Well, that escalated quickly!

I'm a recently started hobbyist so I don't have much knowledge on the quality of historical clamp/cramp manufacturers. Ideally, with unlimited finances, I would have bought some new Bessey pipe clamps but I got these 5 for less than the price of one Bessey. If they are not up to any kind of clamping job then I'll have learned something at least.
I 'm also retired so spending my time more wisely is irrelevant and I like to repair things to the best standard I can manage so I will enjoy remaking the tommy bars. I didn't know they were called tommy bars so I've learned something already.

Steve


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## AES (28 Jun 2018)

Good for you Steve. Good luck with the refurb, something more to learn possibly, and no loss apart from a bit of time, which being retired, is your's to "spend" as you like. (Nice isn't it?)


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## SammyQ (29 Jun 2018)

Seconded AES. Time rich, finance...guarded! 
Signed, freshly retired, still learning the ropes, Sam.


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## AES (29 Jun 2018)

I especially like the bit about "finance --- guarded".

Oh so true, especially since the UK portion of my pension (reckoned in £s natch) is converted by my bank into Swiss Francs. NOT very funny! (But "time rich", yeah - relatively speaking - though since retirement I sometimes wonder where on earth I ever found enough time to even just go to work)!

Welcome to the club Sammy


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## SteveW1000 (29 Jun 2018)

Simple job to make new Tommy bars and doesn't need much in the way of tools. Buy a length of steel rod of the right diameter, cut to the length needed for a tommy bar, even a junior hacksaw should cope with this. You will need a die stock and suitable die for the diameter of rod, cut a short thread on each end of the rod and screw a nut on each end. Few ways of stopping the nuts unscrewing , epoxy, locktite or just centre punch the junction of the thread between the nut and rod at the end of the bar. Either use as it is or turn the nuts against a grinder when installed to round off. Have done the same in the past although I did have access to a lathe so could use round bar instead of nuts.


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