My son scored an Acorn table like this one:
He asked me for welding clamps like this one:
Karl
These are used for woodworking.
Very nice table, wish I had one. "Platen table clamps" perhaps? Those clamps are fancy, the last time I got to use one of those tables, the clamps were a simple "J" bar of sorts that held planty tight just dropping them in place. An extra tap with a hammer made them immovable, and an appropriately directed hammer tap was required to remove them.
Acorn just calls 'em clamps. They have other stuff though. The guy I knew who won the Acorn from the plant salvage auction paid $50 for the table, and it had a bunch of clamps. He still sucks.
Karl,
Don't buy them, fab them. I have a friend with an acorn table and he made the hold downs from a chunk of pipe and a piece of (1/4 3/8?) welded to the top of the pipe.
Drop the thing in a hold and tap it with the hammer and the work is held. Give it a tap back and it releases.
If you want, I will call him tomorrow and get the dimentions for you.
One word of caution however, these tables are turned on a big lathe of sorts to surface the top, and the tops are not flat per se but rather concave.
Roger Shoaf
Karl Townsend wrote:
This sounds even better. Would you ask him?
OK Karl,
The pipe was 11 inches long and has a diameter of 1.660 inches (1 1/4 schedule 40 pipe), take a chunk of 3/8 inch cold rolled 2 inches X 9 inches and weld to one end of the pipe (weld all around the end of the pipe).
Clamp the pipe in the vise and heat the cold rolled so you can bebd it down about 30 degrees.
The cold rolled is then curved back in a gentile radius.
Eric advises that his table has 1 3/4 square holes so if yours differ the pipe needs to be about 1/8" smaller.
You can make these longer or shorter by shortening or lengthing the pipe. The ones with 11" pipe will hold 6-7 inches.
He has made some screw clamps like the one you showed in your original post but he says the pound in DIY ones he made are often faster and easier.
It kind of looks like this:
Roger Shoaf
Karl Townsend wrote:
Did you find the tool on eBay?The link below is old and broken so I not sure what you are looking but we have some used equipment for older acorn platens and welding tables at
Did you find the tool on eBay?The link below is old and broken so I not sure what you are looking but we have some used equipment for older acorn platens and welding tables at
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.