Shop-Made Toggle Clamp

I often enjoy building my own shop-made items. When I needed a couple of toggle clamps for a project, I knew that I wanted to design and build my own. Wood Construction. As you can see in the photo, the toggle clamp I came up with uses almost all hardwood parts. They’re small, but easy to cut out at the band saw. I used aluminum rods for all of the pivot points, and a bolt with a couple of nuts for the finger. Using the toggle clamp is easy. It works exactly like a commercial toggle clamp. The top lever releases the arm and lifts it up. When you slide a workpiece in, you can pull the lever to latch it in place. To accommodate different thicknesses of workpieces, you can loosen the nuts and adjust the bolt in and out. Not only does it function well, but it’s a good-looking clamp.