Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi
Anyone know if there is a uk supplier of 6" deep bridge clamp at a reasonable price

Found 2 suppliers but they want £30-35
Which is very pricey for a clamp

thanks

You can always make one. This design works pretty well.

Klemmsia cam clamp 200 x 150 mm from Axminster at £13.96 each. http://www.axminster.co.uk/klemmsia-cam-clamps

Works for me.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/download/file.php?id=47412

One would probably be enough

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Thanks colin

Dont think the Axminster has deep enough reach (need6") it only has 110mm .. cant open your other link for some reason..might be my phone
Cheers anyway

Personally I find the Klemmsia a bit cumbersome as a Bridge clamp, I'm sure they work though.
The homemade clamp that I showed previously was given to me over 30 years ago when I was at instrument making school. The guy who was teaching just used one single clamp but used a caul on top of the Bridge that gave 3 points of clamping, central and at each end of the bridge wings. It was like a sprung caul. Simple thing made from wood. Worked for him for 30 years, as it has for me.
This particular one has a 165 mm reach. I had to cut off some of the back end because it wouldn't fit in my small Torres model - but that has a relatively small soundhole. The top arm can swing out of the way although the clamp wasn't originally designed to do that! It can be a useful feature though. The internal caul pivots on the little dowel and it's position can also be adjusted.

Thanks micheal

Is that a pivot at the end ..if so is it shaped from the wood or using something else
Cheers

It's just a very short section of 12 mm dowel, glued to the bottom clamp section.
It looks like he glued the bottom section of the clamp to the top section. Drilled a 12 mm hole at the appropriate place and then has sawn through the centre of that hole, releasing the bottom and top sections. That gets your pivot point without too much fuss. The slotted hole in the top section is important, it certainly needs to be a slot rather than a hole.

Another important point. I put the whole clamp and the inside caul into the Guitar before getting either the Bridge or the glue out. The Top clamp arm is swung out of the way (that's it's one advantage). The glue and Bridge is applied to the soundboard and then the top clamping arm is swung into position. The extra long bolt is useful too, it helps to hold the clamp when moving the arm. Whoever came up with this design had clearly thought things through.
The inside caul on it's little pin or dowel needs to be a fairly tight fit, you don't want it so that it can swing around too freely.

Tonetech http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/luthier-tools/clamping.html have Ibex bridge clamps and also this little beauty which is quite expensive.

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http://www.bobmatthewsguitars.co.uk

He thinks £30 -£35 for one clamp is expensive (he might be right). £100 is getting pretty excessive.

Cablepuller, Axminster have Klemmsia cam clamps and the 200 mm capacity(depth) is available in 110, 150, and 200 mm throats(reach)
I have some of each of them, and they are my most used clamps.
I did check they were in stock before I posted.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

All built this afternoon... thanks for the tip and pictures Michael

Tried it on a dry fitting and it worked a treat

Saved me £30 or £100 lol

Thanks again

Thanks for getting back to me colin

It must be my fat fingers but i could only get the one depth option when i tried it..might be because i was looking on my phone

Cheers though

Looks like you managed fine on your own Cablepuller!

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.