Intergrips

[Onoff]

I THINK it was in this forum I found a thread about DIY Intergrips for assisting with butt welding but for the life of me can't find it!

I've been playing with some 15mm square box section but think I might have to up it to the 1" I've also got.

For the "blade" I've been playing with regular hacksaw blades, might need to find something else for the 1" box but still around 1mm thick.

Would ordinary .6 / .8 MS mig wire be OK to weld the stud to the blade?

Anyone recall such a thread?

 

[David2002]

I remember it, I even got a batch nearly made. I used 25mm box and m6 penny washers for the blade welded to m6 studding. Short lengths of 6mm round made the crossbars to go through the washer . I'll dig them out and post a pic if I remember.

 

[Onoff]

I remember it, I even got a batch nearly made. I used 25mm box and m6 penny washers for the blade welded to m6 studding. Short lengths of 6mm round made the crossbars to go through the washer . I'll dig them out and post a pic if I remember.

Ta. Isn't an M6 penny washer a bit thick?

I'm measuring a st/st one at 1.3mm and a BZP at 1.5mm thick. Whereas an old woodsaw is coming up at 1mm and a hacksaw blade at 0.8mm.

 

[Onoff]

15mm box, yet to tack:

 

[Alan Reynolds]

Poroldchap on youtube has a design.

 

[Wallace]

I bought a set, think they have been used 3 or 4 times in 25 years!

15mm box, yet to tack:

View attachment 121712

You will have to anneal the hacksaw blade after welding and I presume you will be grinding the teeth off as the saw set increases the blade width.

 

[sasquar]

i made a handfull up years ago using steel banding (for pallets etc) for the blade (1" box section for the clamp itself). Worked really well. Got a few sets from frost (i think) as well, which are also very good and weren't that expensive, certainly not pricey enough for me to bother making any more. The frost ones have square pegs, for them, mine have round one (they had a previous life as 3" wire nails iirc) which doesn mean that both have their uses!!

 

[Fintray]

@Onoff is this the thread you were looking for?

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/where-can-i-get-clamps-like-this.4676/page-2#post-278829

 

[-Matt-]

That is a genius little gadget! Might have to make up a couple of these for work.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I have a set of intergrips but I don't really get on with them...I just prefer some very strong magnets (neodymium) to hold things in place and then I use a slit disc (0.8mm/1mm)to set the weld gap as I work. I think with inter grips you pretty much have to make the patches perfectly which I find difficult if the shape is complicated and I need to tweak as I go with the hammer...

I find 4 or 5 of these is enough to hold an arch repair panel in place....I saw these on a thread from someone else and figured I'd give them a go. These magnets are way stronger than the ones we had as kids which struggled to pick up a couple of paperclips.

 

[-Matt-]

All very well for, as you say, holding patch panels in cars, but I think the intergrip things would be very useful for when you have two sections out of line and under a little bit of tension.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I found these are about right with 1mm steel...I think they are designed to hold paper to fridges and metal note boards....I think these will hold 25 sheets of A4. The stronger ones have pull forces in the 10s of KG but I think that would be a pain to remove and re-position...

The intergrips looked great but I don't have the patience for them plus if you can't easily get behind the panel to put the pins in then you can't use them. I thought the magnets would be a good backup plan when I couldn't use the intergrips but when I started using them I decided they were much easier....for a start you can stick em to the panel so the don't get lost .

Here is how I use them...

 

[Spot the welders dog]

All very well for, as you say, holding patch panels in cars, but I think the intergrip things would be very useful for when you have two sections out of line and under a little bit of tension.

Without dismissing the use of magnets; I do tend to agree with ^this^.
This repair would have been a right pain to align without the clamps to pull it together around the radius and adjoin the lower flange.




I just use old steel coat-hangers as the 'rod', or sometimes a piece of 'garden wire' if I can't find any hangers. Will have a give match-sticks a try sometime.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Lots of equally good ways I think to do things so just whatever feels easiest I guess and we are all different...by coincidence I happen to also do the same/similiar repair with magnets...each to his own I guess.

The spacer is actually a piece of the slit disc used to make the original cuts which means that the gap is set almost perfectly to where the original panel would have been....essentially 2 magnets and a piece of slit disc hold the gap and the magnets flat on the joint hold the butt joint relative.

I find with the magnets I can do alot of retries for the fit without too much trouble which is the main reason I tend to use them. My patches are invariably either the wrong size or the wrong shape so I generally have to fettle and re-fettle them.

Can't do everything with magnets but I find myself reaching for them frequently which is my indicator they are quite useful....these are strong magnets...that panel is clamped with grips at the bottom but the magnets are perfectly capable of holding the butt joint in the right place.

As I said....these aren't the magnets I remember as a kid where a magnet the size of a saucer could barely lift a box of clips. If anything they are more like the magnets in a comic book

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

1 magnet 1 sledge hammer...give an idea of the pull force.

 

[-Matt-]

That's a bit good!
Though I will point out that not all of us are sticking cars together :P
When I stated that I'd like to make some for work, that's because I work in sheet fabrication and you often end up putting stuff together that needs a bit of pulling power to hold things in line

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

OK I confess....that hammer is stuck on with super glue...Only kidding .

Intergrips definitely have a place in the tool box especially if you are working on bench fabrication.

 

[Exuptoy]

I like Clecos as well if you need to pin together 2 layers on a seam. Excuse the **** welding.

Not looking too bad once dressed back.