A pipe clamp is a type of clamp often employed in

woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, woodworking joints, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with Rock (geology), stone, clay and animal parts, ...

piping Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids (liquids and gases) from one location to another. The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of fluid. Industrial process piping (and accompan ...

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

shops. When referring to woodwork or cabinet shops, pipe clamps are usually composed of commercially manufactured clamp heads or "jaws" and a length of common threaded

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...

. The capacity of the clamp is determined by the length of the pipe used. When referring to piping, pipe clamps are used to connect the pipe to the pipe hanger assembly.

Description

In woodwork, a pipe clamp uses clamp heads produced commercially by numerous manufacturers. They are available in various

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for ...

sizes, commonly ½”or ¾”, suited to the same diameter piping. The pipe is usually threaded on both ends. One head is fixed on the pipe by spinning it onto standard

pipe thread A threaded pipe is a pipe with screw-threaded ends for assembly. Tapered threads The threaded pipes used in some plumbing installations for the delivery of gases or liquids under pressure have a tapered thread that is slightly conical (in co ...

s. This head includes the

screw A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to fa ...

mechanism Mechanism may refer to: * Mechanism (engineering), rigid bodies connected by joints in order to accomplish a desired force and/or motion transmission *Mechanism (biology), explaining how a feature is created *Mechanism (philosophy), a theory that ...

for tightening the clamp. The other, movable, head slides onto the other end of the pipe. This head has a mechanism, often a series of movable “

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

es” which allow it to slide along the pipe when setting up the clamping operation but which lock onto the pipe when clamping pressure is applied. Pipe clamps serve a similar purpose to

bar clamp An F-clamp, also known as a bar clamp or speed clamp, is a type of clamp. The name comes from its "F" shape. The F-clamp is similar to a C-clamp in use, but has a wider opening capacity (throat). This tool is used in woodworking while more perman ...

s but are generally less expensive to purchase and have a versatility derived from the ability to use a variety of lengths of pipe to suit one's needs. The same clamp heads might be switched over from a two-foot length of pipe to a twelve-foot length as the project at hand dictates. Having threads at both ends of the pipe also allows the use of pipe

coupling A coupling is a device used to connect two shafts together at their ends for the purpose of transmitting power. The primary purpose of couplings is to join two pieces of rotating equipment while permitting some degree of misalignment or end mov ...

s, joining two lengths of pipe to extend the length of the clamp. In piping, a pipe clamp is a bottled attachment that clamps around the pipe. The clamps can be manufactured with black or galvanized finishes.

Uses

A common use of pipe clamps in woodworking is for

edge gluing Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

; several boards being joined edge to edge to produce a wider surface such as a table top or cabinet components. In this case several pipe clamps will be set up on the

workbench A workbench is a sturdy table at which manual work is done. They range from simple flat surfaces to very complex designs that may be considered tools in themselves. Workbenches vary in size from tiny jewellers benches to the huge benches used by ...

so that clamping pressure can be applied evenly along the length of the boards being joined. Pipe clamps can be used to assemble the four sides of boxes or cabinets. As with most other forms of clamps, a wide variety of uses might be found.

References

Clamps (tool) Woodworking hand tools {{Woodworking-stub