Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I was going thru the paper today and noticed a local hardware store had clamps on sale. They have 3" ratcheting clamps on sale for $3.49 a piece.

I figure I could use these for a lot of the constuction and come up with some longer bar clamps as well. But I'm looking for ideas on how any to buy? Any suggestions?

On my canoe project...
I think I'm up to 50 3" c-clamps, not including the larger ones and God knows how many spring clamps.

IMHO It's better to have extra clamps,than to not have enough clamps.

I will need to increase my inventory of bar clamps. (I've only got about 6 of those)

To quote my friend 'Lenny CLAMP-IT'...

You can never own too many clamps.

Thank you for your answers!

But I was actually looking for a minimum number of clamps that you would need to attempt to build a Teardrop. I do agree that you can't have too any, but I also have a budget that I have to work under. So I don't want to spend too much on clamps I would rather spend the extra money on amenities for my trailer.

I was hoping somebody would come along and give me a suggestion like:
- (20) 3" rachet clamps
- (6) bar clamps, adjustable lengths

and so on.

More info:
I'm looking at building a 5.5' x 9' x 4' high Teardrop.

Any answers are greatly appreciated.

Turtle,
Not having built a teardrop yet, I can't give you the deffinitive answer, but...
If you are on a tight budget, you can get pretty creative with homemade clamping setups.
Something that is not addressed here, as it is quite a bit on the boat building site, is the amount of clamping pressure on a glued joint.
It is very easy to over clamp a joint, starve it of glue and end up with a weak joint.
I would think that you could eliminate the bar clamps and use a long wooden jig, using wedged shims against stops to get adiquate clamping pressure.
Wooden "duck-bill" clamps can also be fabricated using a bolt & wing-nut.

Ya, these jigs would add time to the overall project, but they would save on the budget.
I need to get the biggest bang I can from the amount of time available, so... Time Is Money.

Great suggestion! I will keep it in mind for special clamping circumstances that could arise.

What boat building site were you refering to?

Turtle49 wrote:Thank you for your answers!

But I was actually looking for a minimum number of clamps that you would need to attempt to build a Teardrop. I do agree that you can't have too any, but I also have a budget that I have to work under. So I don't want to spend too much on clamps I would rather spend the extra money on amenities for my trailer.

I was hoping somebody would come along and give me a suggestion like:
- (20) 3" rachet clamps
- (6) bar clamps, adjustable lengths

and so on.

More info:
I'm looking at building a 5.5' x 9' x 4' high Teardrop.

Any answers are greatly appreciated.

I have hundreds of clamps, collected over many years! I bought over a hundred over the year before building the first wooden boat! Two or three a week, easy on the budget!
I used bar clamps only for the cabinets, I used 4 with 4 foot pipe.(Pony Clamps)
I really used a lot of cheap, less that $2 each, spring clamps, Homer's, everywhere else.
Clamps don't have to be "clamps". I have a lot of spring binder clips, $3 per dozen at Office Depot. You can slice 3" pvc pipe into 2" slices, cut a 1"
section out of the slice. The resulting "c" shape cand be opened over your clamping chore!
Screws and glue, are my favorite for construction of my woody. Just plan the screws to be hidden in the processes later.

http://www.bearmountainboats.com
There is a builders forum set up exactly like this one. There is also a project directory.

Here's another! This is my usual hang out, when I'm not here The Kayak Forum Everything I learned about strip building, I learned here!

Paul W wrote:To quote my friend 'Lenny CLAMP-IT'...

You can never own too many clamps.

Is he related to Jed...Clamp-it??

there's always the "spanish windlass", too.

wrap a couple of times with rope, tie it off, jamb a stick in the rope, and twist the livin' bejeepers out of it.

the hardest part is figuring how to hold the stick from unspinning, but with a little practice it's a good way to hold an awkward shape tight.

Well, I spent my first $50 towards the building of my Teardrop.

I went down and got 8, 3" ratcheting clamps and 6, 2". This is the start of the "tool aquireing" phase. How fun is this?

Pretty soon... Abe Lincoln will stop squinting his eyes.

Pretty soon... Abe Lincoln will stop squinting his eyes.

Alright Dean...you got me. I don't get it. It sounds funny and kinda like your trying to get me building, but I got to know is there some hidden meaning :

Dean & Steve,

Never heard that you could clamp too tightly, thus starving the joint for glue. So how do you tell? Confused but still trying!
Frank