Shop-Made Bench Clamp

When you plane or sand a board, it's a good idea to clamp it down. My problem is that the clamps get in the way. My solution is to use a pipe clamp and a few pieces of hardware.

The idea is to mount the clamp to the side of the bench top. To do this, I used eye bolts and threaded inserts, see drawing. (The threaded inserts allow me to quickly remove the clamp.) Then, to allow clearance for the jaws, I added two spacers.

Since I wanted to be able to work the entire surface of a 1/2"-thick workpiece without hitting the jaws, I positioned the clamp so the jaws are no more than 3/8" above the bench top.