Claw Clamps a home made clamp system

[thehomeengineer]

Hi Toolmaker 51
The claw itself was made from 1/2" (12mm) thick mild steel. The centre position of each radius was marked out and drilled using their co-ordinates on the mill, as well as the two pivot holes. This then enabled me to gang mill a couple of claws at the same time on the rotary table using 6mm pins in each hole locking them together. Using a 6mm bush in the centre of the rotary table I pushed the relevant pin into the bush and offset the machine from the rotary table centre then machined each radius and blend relative to that radius/hole centre. Gang milling just meant I could save some time. I hope this all makes sense?
The Home Engineer

[Toolmaker51]

Hi Toolmaker 51
The claw itself was made from 1/2" (12mm) thick mild steel. The centre position of each radius was marked out and drilled using their co-ordinates on the mill, as well as the two pivot holes. This then enabled me to gang mill a couple of claws at the same time on the rotary table using 6mm pins in each hole locking them together. Using a 6mm bush in the centre of the rotary table I pushed the relevant pin into the bush and offset the machine from the rotary table centre then machined each radius and blend relative to that radius/hole centre. Gang milling just meant I could save some time. I hope this all makes sense?
The Home Engineer

Absolutely clear. I've mentioned before having good access to machines and tooling and enjoy using them all; rotary tables are high on the list. I'd tend to bandsaw profiles oversize to ease gang-milling. Otherwise I'll scale mine accordingly to yours; my present set aren't so adaptable to extruded shapes, THAT is a brilliant addition.
Your process makes the clamp consistent, so they operate with the same 'feel', X amount of torque = Y amount of clamping. Safe, repeatable setups benefit a great deal from that. And a salute on your Tool of the Week win. As Jon said a full week of submissions, the clamps are what I zeroed in on.