3-Way Panel Clamp System 

A lot of people have asked this question and yes, I had considered it, but there were a few issues with using the spring nuts. First and foremost, the whole load would be placed on just the inner lip of the unistrut. I didn’t feel like that was strong enough for the application. Second, since I was placing a lateral clamping load on the piece, I was concerned about the spring but moving as I was tightening down the clamp. I was also concerned about warping the inner lip with the lateral clamping forces. Finally, if I used a spring nut, the threads of the bolt would dig in to the edge of the board I was clamping, leaving marks behind. They way I designed it, it bears the flattening load across the whole unistrut, it won’t move because the nuts are welded into fixed locations, and the bolts are long enough that the shoulder of the bolt is what interfaces with the panel, so the threads won’t mar the edge. This idea isn’t perfect. Someday I will release version 2.0, but for now it does the job. Thanks for your comment!

@@SouthpawWorkshop you can cut the springs off the nuts, you don’t really need them. There is no way the clamping force would bend the lips of the unistrut, most people tighten the clamps way too much, only a small amount of pressure is required. Great idea!

Really thoughtful engineering you have, regarding the use of welding instead of spring nuts. You raise extremely important engineering reasons for using the welded nuts. However, I do feel that if you're going to use Unistrut, then you absolutely have to use spring nuts, because spring nuts are part of the magic of Unistrut. The magic of spring nuts is the clean look, no welding, but most importantly--infinite adjustability. Spring nuts also allow nothing protruding from the bottom of the strut, so it would sit completely flat. The spring nuts won't deform the strut, as long as you use a standard thin washer on the bolt that tightens the two pieces together--the washer will deform visibly and will continue to deform, before the strut deforms.@@SouthpawWorkshop

Thanks for the support, Mike. I am aware of all the available accessories available for unistrut. There are many reasons I built it the way I did and maybe I didn’t explain very well in the video. What it all boils down to is speed of deployment and ease of storage. Neither of which can be done when you have a bunch of loose bolts and spring but that need to be inserted and adjusted for each application.

Great suggestions. I think there are a lot of ways this can be tackled. I hope others try it out with their own improvements.

What if you bolt a pine strip to the inner surface of each clamp, (countersunk bolts of course)? That might help prevent the clamp from digging in.

Doug Sholly And the strip could be tapered down to the ends so that the pressure would be even across the width (notice the dents are on the outside edges, showing the caul pressure is not even across the width)

Awesome! Let me know how it works out

I would suggest going with deep unistrut for rigidity, I'd REALLY like to see what you come up with. I use a set of 4' pieces and just nut and bolt thru them as cauls but use conventional clamps to join the boards.

Thanks!

Awesome! Thanks for checking it out

Good luck!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks!

¡Gracias por ver!

De nada!

Thanks, David!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks! I know my videos can be long, but I try to keep the filler to a minimum. I like the idea of setting the torque on a drill to control the tension. I’ll try that out next time. Cheers!

@Tvzblaze Ggg To respond to the question of using spring nuts: The reason I did not use the spring nuts has to do with how those nuts interface with the Unistrut. There is a small lip on the inner channel of the unistrut that catches these nuts and all of the clamping pressure is applied to that narrow lip. In normal pluming and structural unistrut applications, the nut and lip are always pressing against something say, a pipe, a piece of structural steel, or another piece of unistrut. In this application, there is nothing backing up the nut and the tendency will be for the lip to bend outward away from the inner channel of the strut. I am using the full thickness of the unistrut to behave like clamping cauls, so the bolt and nut needs to press equally from the outside of the unistrut, using the rigidity of the strut as the caul action while the bolt provides the clamping action. With a spring nut in use, my belief is that only 1 side would provide the caul action and the nut side would just fail over time because of the pressure being applied to the inner retaining lip. I sure hope that book I just wrote gives you some insight to how I was thinking when I approached this project. I did consider using spring nuts at one time, but decided against it for the reasons stated above. Thanks for your input, guys!

Thank you!

I agree the unistrut flipped so that the flat side touched the wood would work better but its a great idea probably will copy the idea

Bakthavathsal Kadambi I think the onside down allows for smaller thickness panels so the horizontal bolt isn’t limiting your downward pressure. For thicker panels could have some hardwood inserted in the openings top and bottom

Sounds like some great modifications you made there. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Charlie! I'm always up for suggestions. I want to make sure all the bugs are worked out before I make the 36" versions!

Thanks!