Welding is not a piece of cake, but to make this challenging activity a bit easier, you can use the best welding accessories. Welding clamps are one of them; imagine a welding process; you will feel that if it involves a lot of heat and electricity, a human hand must not hold the welded entities.
Welding clamps are the holding hands for you while you heat up, melt, and weld two pieces of metal together. The welding clamps will make your welding tasks more comfortable, and a little investment can go a long way, not in terms of your work but also for the sake of your career as a welder.
What are welding clamps?
Welding clamps are simple mechanical tools used to hold the metal pieces in place while you join them. They will ensure a stable position and angle of the welded metal pieces. In welding, alignment is quite essential; otherwise, you will not get the desired result. The welding clamps will ensure a safe and aligned work for you.
These are also made up of copper-plated brass metal, and their structure is more like a tong, which can be tightened up with the help of some nuts and bolts.
How to make your welding clamps
So far, we were only discussing the readymade welding clamps; what we did not realize was the feasibility of making them yourself. Yes, you read it right.
Pick the right material.
You only need a few things for this; you need a bar of steel and angle steel, measuring 2×1/4” and 2x2x1/4” respectively.
Cut the metal
Now start cutting the angle metal bar into two equal parts. After cutting them, pick the flat bar and cut it according to the angle bar with a 45-degree angle.
Now, scrub them with a flap or sandpaper. Next, join them at a 90-degree angle; you can use a framing square to avoid the wiggling.
Weld
When you are sure that everything is in place, start welding, and connect the two metal bar pieces. It would help if you tacked weld them first, and after every few minutes, check the alignment.
While you put it to cool down, check the alignment with a framing square to ensure the clamps’ desired structure. Lastly, you can check the alignment once it is cool with some other framing squares as well. Your welding clamp is ready to use.
Wrapping up
The welding clamps are an essential tool used in professional and everyday welding activities. Welding requires focus, and when the welders are focusing on the welding machines, the electric arcs, and welding gases, they get no time to consider the positioning of the metal.
Not only this, the metals are not always with a rough texture, but most of them are also polished, and to weld them, it is better to hold them in a firm manner, which is only possible through the welding clamps.
Why we use welding clamps?
There are several reasons to use the welding clamps, but there are the following reasons specifically for the welding industry.
- The welding clamps will help you do your work fast and smoothly, without troubling you to hold the hot metal.
- It is safe to use the welding clamps as they are covered with plastic at the edges. Thus they will not burn your hand. Second, there would not be any fear of getting electrocuted.
- When the metal pieces are bigger than life, when you feel that you cannot hold the metal properly with your one hand, there is a need to assist with these tools.
- With the welding magnets. When you feel that you want that finesse in your work.
- When you are working at a professional level, your welded articles would not be approved without the proper alignment.
Types of welding clamps
As the welding field is not something that started a few centuries back, and the entire world is practicing it for quite a long time for the daily life processes.
Till now, we have developed several types of welding clamps.
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Dimide long series clamps
These are the most widely used clamps, as they are used for long-reaching capabilities, like holding some long metal pieces.
This welding clamp comes with changeable hands so that you can alter the holders as per your requirement. Its coms with a T handle, which proves to be of great help when handling heavier metal pieces.
You can use this dimide long series for the following purposes.
- Sheet metal fabrication
- Woodworking
- Autobody work
- All those welding works where we require a longer reach.
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Bar clamps
These clamps are also known as the F clamps. It is more like a wrench, and it comes with a better opening capacity. This very clamp is best for the following activities.
- woodworking
- large opening capacity
- metalworking
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C-clamps
If you buy a welding clamp, the shopkeepers will likely give you the C-clamps. They are known for their simplicity and ease of use. You must have seen them along with other basic welding tools.
There are again a lot of types for this one, depending upon the anvil and the metal. Some famous ones are the double anvil clamp, copper-coated, and deep reach clamps.
They are the best welding clamps for an affordable welding activity; you need to ay a few bucks and place the metals to be welded.
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Parallel clamps
These are different and quite interesting. The name says it all; the two rods in this clamp are parallel to each other. This parallel structure will give an increased working area, which decreases the risk of dimpling while welding,
These clamps are suitable for the following works.
- Woodworking
- large opening capacity.
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Quick clamps
These are the ones that can be carried anywhere, and they are super adjustable as per the need of the welders. They come with a push handle, that is the main thing in it. You can adjust the capacity of the holders with this push handle.
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Sheet metal clamps
These clamps are not like others as they come with a sheet, a flattened sheet at the metal holding sites’ edges. These are ideal for those metal articles that are themselves flat, and holding them with the round cylindrical clamps will disturb the work’s alignment.
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Locking chain clamps
If you look at these clamps, they will look like a nail cutter. The chain with this clamp can squeeze and hold the metal pipes in place while you weld them.
The chain can be wrapped around the metal pieces to exert pressure; in that pressure, you can weld the shiny metal surfaces without making them slip away while you try to hold them tightly; these clamps will do that for you.
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Kant twist clamp
These clamps are of a unique type, and some welders invented these to avoid the walking of joys, this walking of jaws can disturb the welder, which can increase the risk of dealignment, and the output would be negative.
There is a perpendicular rod at the backside of these clamps. They make sure that the edges and holders are not slipping off while holding the metals.
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Spring clamps
If you are welding at a minor scale or at home, these clamps can be the best tool for holding the metal pieces. They are like the tongs, and you can pick up the hot metal with them to ensure the perfect welding.
The best thing about these clamps is their price; you are not supposed to pay hundreds of bucks, as you did for the professional clamps. Even a beginner can afford it to start his career in welding. It is best for students and beginners.
Advantages of welding clamps
You must be thinking why we must invest in welding clamps when we can hold the welded metals with some thick cloth or some other mechanical tools.
Well, for safety, it is better to use the welding clamps than using the regular clamps. The welding clamps are specially designed to hold the hot metal. The holding handles are covered with some thick silicone or plastic material to make the welding comfortable.
- Smooth alignment
If you will not use the welding clamps to hold the metal while welding, chances are that the outcome will not be smoothly aligned, and you will have to face rejection.
- Quality fitting
The reason to weld two metals is to design a better product. The aligned and properly welded product will come with the best quality. The welding clamps would ensure that the metals are properly fit and held with pressure.