T-Slot Wood Clamps for my CNC

Four clamps conspiring

This is not a new design of mine.  I've been using these wood clamps for several years.  They are sacrificial though and many have encountered spinning router bits during their lives. 

A few of the scrap wood blocks in my collection have hinted that they'd like to be clamps. As such this post is about granting that desire and replacing some previous clamps that are near death. 

My previous clamps were cut from larger boards,  A few were cut as two halves that I glued together.  A few were cut from thicker boards, then turned 90 degrees so I could cut the slot for the bolt in them.  

The length of these clamps is not critical to their usefulness and can vary. 

The first one (upper right)  I made from a dense white oak scrap.  It suffered a few broke out chips when the bottom edge was flush cut after the CNC was done. It works despite those missing bits. 

The second clamp I cut from a scrap of birch (lower left).  It also gave me some grief as I made a mistake when clamping the scrap block down. I stopped the CNC after the first pass when I realized that mistake.  It works but has a few scars from my bandsaw, drum, sand disk sanders.

The last two clamps were cut from a 5/8" thick scrap of walnut. Room enough for 4 halves that when glued together made two clamps. I added an alignment hole for a 3/4" long section of 1/4"diameter wood dowel to make it easier to clamp the halves together and aligned. 

One Scrap, Four clamp halves

Making them in halves is the most reliable method. Especially if you don't have an easy way to cut the slot after cutting out the clamp profile from the side. 

These clamps hold the work down and also prevent it from moving sideways.  Made from wood you don't have to worry if a router bit accidently encounters one. Should one or more  be ruined from such an encounters making replacements is easy. 

4D