Friendly reminder: pipe clamps are made of pipe
I was gluing up our dining room table and hit a snag–the longest pipe clamps I have were 4″ too short. What to do? Well, fortunately I remembered that since they’re made of PIPES, I can do all the usual pipe-y stuff to them, including put couplers on them. I coupled my 2′ pipes to the end of the not-quite-there pipes and I was good to go. There is a catch, though–it leaves a big bump in the middle of the pipe. You have to take that into account when you’re clamping; it tends to make the glueup more likely to bow. Be sure to put pipes on opposite sides to prevent this. Alternately, make your 8′ pipe out of lots of 2′ pieces–with couplers every 2′, you’ll have a secondary surface instead of one big bump.
In any case, grab some couplers that fit your pipe clamp pipes. You’ll thank me for it.
–dan
(You can also cut the pipes down & have them re-thread the cut ends at Le Depot Du Maison, so you can turn a 4′ into two versatile 2’ers).
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