How to Make a Clamp Rack for My Shop | ToolsToday

How do you think this project turned out? Making a clamp rack on the i2R W.42 2'x4' CNC machine using Amana Tool® industrial CNC router bits available on our website, toolstoday.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shop-cart

This clamp rack will fit many other types of clamps as well and the customizable plans are available on our website, item no. CLAMP toolstoday.com/clamp-rack-cnc-plans-downloadable-and-customizable.html

Feed, Speed & CNC Running Parameters

Amana Tool 363032 Solid Carbide Brad Point Drill Bit R/H 3.2mm D x 55mm Long x 3.2mm SHK with Amana Tool 364032 Drill Adapter 10mm SHK for 3.2mm Drill
RPM: 4,000
Peck Drilling Toolpath
Plunge Rate: 50ipm
Depth Per Pass: 0.25”

Amana Tool 46202-K SC Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated Spiral Plunge 1/4 Dia x 3/4 CH x 1/4 SHK 2-1/2 Inch Long Down-Cut Router Bit
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 100ipm
Plunge Rate: 50ipm
Depth Per Pass: 0.25"

Amana Tool 46172-K CNC SC Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated Compression Spiral 3/8 D x 1-1/4 CH x 3/8 SHK x 3 Inch Long 2 Flute Router Bit
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 200ipm
Plunge Rate: 200ipm if able to ramp in 100ipm if unable to ramp in
Depth Per Pass: 0.705”
Ramp in: Smooth 1” with circular lead in

Amana Tool RC-1102 Insert V-Groove 90 Deg x 3/4 CH x 1/2 Inch SHK CNC Router Bit
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 40ipm
Plunge Rate: 20ipm
Max Depth Per Pass: 0.25"

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey guys, how's it going? Today I'm gonna show you how I built this clamp rack that's holding 300 pounds of clamps. Currently we just have parallel clamps on it but it'll work for many different styles as well. We do have plans available on our website, the link is down in the description. Be sure to check those out if you want to make it for yourself. Stick around to see how we made it.

Putting some material down to make a clamp rack with the i2R W42 2 x 4 CNC Machine. We’re gonna be using some brad nails to hold the material down. Luckily, this machine uses UCCNC control software which gives me a preview of what the design will look like within the space of the material. It makes putting brad nails in around the design extremely easy and limits the chance of running into a nail on accident.

The first thing I need to do for this design is drill some holes for screw locations. Being able to drill holes in the CNC increases efficiency and prevents the possibility of burning out an end mill trying to drill holes when that's not what it's designed to do. I'm doing peck drilling here with a 3.2 mm Solid Carbide Drill Bit and adapters to get to a half inch shank that the collet can grab on the spindle. After drilling 30 holes through the 3/4" Baltic birch plywood, the bit was barely warm to the touch and there was no burning at all.

It also produces really nice chips instead of sawdust, which is exactly what we want to see. I switch tools and I'm zeroing off with the 46202-K 1/4” down cut bit to cut all of the dadoes where pieces will later slot into. The down cut action of the bit leaves a perfectly clean top surface of the material, leaving no cleanup work at all needing to be done. After all that was done, I switched out for the 46172-K 3/8th inch compression bit to cut the profiles. This bit is cutting through the 3/4" plywood in a single pass at 200 inches per minute absolutely flying through the material and the machine handled it without any problem.

The compression bit has an up cut and down cut portion of the bit which leaves a perfectly clean top and bottom surface of the material as long as the first pass is below the up cut portion of the bit. After all of the profiles were cut, I got the sheet pulled up and cut the tabs with the FEIN MultiMaster. One of these pieces didn't turn out as intended but we will get back to that a little bit later. The bit left a clean cut producing big chips and not sawdust which is again exactly what we want to see. Chips mean the bit is cutting efficiently while sawdust means that it is re-cutting those chips and grinding them into sawdust. I cleaned off the machine and loaded up the second sheet to cut more of the parts using the same bits to do so.

I know many people don't have CNC machines that can take a half inch shank bit. So, the plans for this project available on our website include a workaround in separate files with all the tool paths set for those of you whose machines are only able to take a 3/4” shank bit. After everything was cut, I got it all vacuumed off, pulled up the pieces, trimmed the tabs free and the final sheet that I'm going to be using is going to be including a logo plate to go above the clamp rack. Using Oramask 813 for this and just about every time that I use it, I get questions about how I got it to stick so well. Send the surface down to 220 Grit, use a compressor to blow off all the sawdust, wipe the surface clean with my hand and then I lay the masking down using a spreader to push it into the material as I'm pulling the paper out the backside.

I go back over it to make sure I don't have any bubbles and trim off the excess and I can get the final sheet put onto the CNC. This is going to be a flat bottom VCarve sign to give it a 3d effect. I'm setting my Z zero on a spot that I know will not be carved away and then marking the location so that I can zero off in the same exact spot when changing bits. This is a good habit to get into as it will increase the accuracy of your pieces you're using 101 bit on. Starting out with the 46202-K 1/4" down cut bit to remove the majority of the waste. Since we have the masking on there, we're going to be painting the carved areas later on. After clearing out the waste, I switched out for the RC-1102, 90-degree insert carbide v-bit zeroing off of the same location that we marked out earlier. This will ensure that they both cut to the exact same depth.

The v-bit can now go through and pick up all of the details the 1/4” bit wasn't able to reach and the depth lines line up absolutely perfectly for a really nice look. The V-bit cleans up all of the flat bottom edges left by the ¼” bit as well leaving very little cleanup work to do before painting. A sign similar to this one has also included the plans for this project so that you can see how I set up all those tool paths to achieve the exact same look. I then switched out for the same 3/8” compression bit to do the profile, cut off the sign in the top shelf of the clamp rack. I got everything all vacuumed off, pulled up, trimmed the tabs free and all pieces are now cut. I moved over to the SawStop router table and used the 47104 1/2”diameter flush trim bit to flush trim all of the tabs.

After all of the tabs are flush trimmed, I can then get it switched out for the 49496 8” radius round over bit using a starting pin on the router table to round over those edges. The starting pin really helps with keeping things under control while we're starting to route these edges. It did the exact same thing to the other side of the piece. With the round over done, the parts fit perfectly and matches the radius of the bit from the CNC. Unfortunately, this is where I realized I had made a mistake. When designing things out, I forgot to flip the clamp shelf horizontally since I had to cut on what would be the underside of it. Things didn't exactly line up for me but this has been fixed in the plans.

I quickly remade the piece and was able to get back to assembling the clamp rack just like before. I slotted the triangle pieces into the back panel and then slid the clamp shelf in slotting everything together. I needed to countersink the screws to make them sit flush with the surface. So, I used the 55227 Nomar Carbide Tipped countersink as this bit is perfect for this. It has an adjustable depth stop for both the countersink and the drill bit to give you the perfect fit for your screws and get them flush with the surface of the material every time without marring it. The top shelf was then slotted into the dado and screwed in the same way. Place clamps to ensure things didn't move on me while driving in the screws. The side panel can then be slotted in and I think it is really cool to see how all of this fits together so perfectly.

For these side panels, I used some truss head screws as I really liked the way that they look instead of having everything countersunk to the level. I pre-drilled and drove in all of the screws to fully secure everything together. I made sure to use plenty of screws here as this rack will be supporting about 300 pounds worth of clamps. The rack was flipped around and the right side panel was installed in the same way. The rack is now fully assembled and I absolutely love the way that this looks. It can now be installed on the wall with the help of some peer multi props. These allow it to be held into place and adjust for height and level to let me screw it in place easily without having to hold it at the same time.

You can see it's nice and level there. Once those top screws are in, I can move them out of the way and fully secure it to the studs. This clamp rack is now ready for the clamps to be added. In my shop, the rack is going to be holding more parallel clamps of all different sizes. It was designed to work with most brands of parallel clamps and also many different styles of clamps as well. So, it should work great in your shop. This is holding 30 clamps total. It could hold 35 as there's room for one more on each side. But before finishing this off, let's put paint on the sign that we carved earlier.

For this, we'll be using General Finishes Milk paint and Driftwood color. Just painting it onto the sign, we did two coats on this one. After the paint has had a chance to dry, I pulled the Oramask off the sign with the help of the heat gun to prevent the mask from pulling any grain out on this Baltic birch plywood. I'll then get the sign mounted to the wall above the rack using command strips to hold it in place. I loaded up the top shelf and this rack turned out looking amazing and super functional as well. All tools used in this video are available on our website, so be sure to check it out there. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this one. We'll catch you guys back out here on the next one. Have a great day everyone.

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