When fabricating various things out of metal around the shop,
sometimes I want some part to clamp to some other part. Suppose I
have a U shaped part I want to slide over a piece of square tubing
and hold in place. I can make a hole in the side of the U, tap it
or weld a nut on, and tighten a bolt in to create a clamping
force. This, of course, works and I see stuff done like this. While
effective, the clamping force is concentrated in a small point and
the bolt turns while clamping, so this can be a bit hard on the
underlying tube. Suppose I wanted to take this to the next level,
and have some kind of foot on the bottom of the bolt like a real C
clamp. This would involve something like a ball joint that allows
the bolt to turn independent of the foot while keeping the foot from
just falling off, again, like a real C clamp. The question is, are
there any somewhat generic parts available for creating things like
this? It could be something that gets welded to a bolt, or a bolt
with a ball end and a matching socket. This is just for shop stuff
so I'm not interested in starting a custom machining project. I
thought about cannibalizing a C clamp, but the thread is different
(acme) and they aren't exactly designed to be disassembled. I feel
like there should be something for this purpose at McMaster-Carr or
someplace similar, but so far I haven't found it. Any thoughts? Thanks.
-Steve Trovato
strovato at optonline.net
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