Videos

RiteHite Clamps

Self-positioning hold down clamp

Tools (Recommended):
Bessey 375L RiteHite Self-Positioning Hold Down Clamp – 3/8″ stud

Bessey 376S RiteHite Self-Positioning Hold Down Clamp – 3/8″ stud, long reach

Bessey 501S RiteHite Self-Positioning Hold Down Clamp – 1/2″ stud

Bessey 501S RiteHite Self-Positioning Hold Down Clamp – 1/2″ stud, long reach

Transcript:
Hi, I’m Sean Michael Ragan, and you’re watching Cool Tools. If you have a mill or other machine tool with a T-slot table, you’re probably using a strap clamp kit more-or-less like this one for workholding purposes. These kits typically have six different types of components: t-slot nuts that fit into your table, various lengths of threaded studs that fit into the t-slot nuts, coupling nuts that allow you to splice the studs together end-to-end, strap clamps that go over the ends of the studs, step blocks for propping up the ends of the clamps at various heights, and flange nuts that let you clamp the whole assembly together with your work. RiteHite clamps, like these, make all that fiddly work considerably easier by combining the strap clamp and the step block into a single self-adjusting unit. You can see they’ve got a nice curved shape that’s designed to cam over as you apply pressure to the flat side of this bearing element, which is captive in the clamp but free to rotate through a short arc so that the clamping load is applied evenly, and straight down into the table, no matter what angle the clamp settles in. These are Bessey’s model 501S standard-length clamps for 1/2 inch studs. They’ll grab anything up to 1-3/4″ in height, but of course if you need to shim them up to grab taller stuff you can. Bessey makes one smaller size for 3/8″ studs which I’ve got here to show you for size comparison, as well as three larger sizes for 5/8-, 3/4-, and 1-inch studs, all of which, in my opinion, are larger than you’re likely to need in a home shop. Each of those sizes is also available in a long-reach version which adds between 25 and 50 percent additional vertical clamping distance without the use of shims. Alright, thank you for watching. As always you’ll find affiliate links in the description field down below the video. If you’ve seen something here you like, please do check those links out, as well as our blog and our podcast over at cool-tools.org. We’ll see you next time.

-- Sean Michael Ragan 12/14/20

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