I have a problem. I moved into a new shop that is smaller. Won't have the wall space I had before. I have well over 100 clamps from 5 feet down to 1". Lots of them in the 24 to 36" range and a lot in the 8 to 12" range. I'm trying to figure out some really compact way to store these things. In the past I simply put them on pipes or rods running down the wall so I had 3 different areas of wall filled with clamps. I have looked at the mobile carts but don't think I will have room in the new shop. I'd love to see your ideas. I thought about making a lift and hanging them on a sort of portable wall that goes up to the ceiling when not in use but it would weigh several hundred pounds so that isn't going to happen.
I have an assortment of bar clamps that includes pipe clamps, Bessey K body clamps and Dubuque clamps among others. I made a rake that has a bunch of 2 x 2 fingers sticking straight out about a foot. The slots are wide enough to accept the pipe or bar and the fingers are wide enough to keep the heads from getting tangled up. Each slot will accept about four clamps. so in about 3' of wall space I can hang up about 36 clamps.
I have about a dozen Quick grip clamps clamped along the edge of a little used shelf. A bucket full of C-clamps sits under my drill press. and I have two drawers full of Whatever those clamps are that look like a giant pair of pliers and my band clamps.
Mine is much simpler than that one. It's like the back of that one with the fingers extended far enough to hold three or four clamps. I lag bolted it to wooden studs. John, you might have to have some bracing because of your metal studs. Perhaps a brace from the top and out of the way. I did not have the time or patience for the swinging part of the rack.
I am considering sliding walls. The big clamps are too heavy for hinged walls. I have an area by my door that's 3 feet. If I made 3 frames that had a track on top and wheels on the bottom it might work. I dont know if they would all fit in that area. I figure at least 3 frames.
That's a good start. At least you are thinking in three dimensions instead of two, like most clamp rack designs. You don't need immediate access to every clamp, even if you do need immediate access to every length and type of clamp. We all have several different kinds and sizes of clamps, but we also have several of each size. Amy one of the identical clamps will do in a pinch, so we should be able to save several square feet of wall space by making a rack that holds every identical clamp in a row that sticks out into the available cubic feet of space in front of the square feet of clamp wall space. I find that I conserve wall space whenever I have three or more of the same type and length of clamp.
Another compactification works very well for spring clamps. I hang a 3/4" square stick, about 4 feet long from the ceiling with an eye hook in the end of the stick and a screw hook in the ceiling. All my spring clamps are clamped onto the stick, from four different directions.
I'll get back to you with some pics when I get back to my desk. I don't have the pics stored here on my laptop. My most elegant design is for my Bessey K-body rack, which saves even more wall space than other clamp types.
Don't discredit mobile carts too quickly. It's easy to come up with a homemade cart to suit your application. My shop is small and I have almost no wall space, so almost everything is on wheels. True, I have to move something to do anything, but that's what casters are for. Occasionally, it has been handy to move the clamp rack over to wherever my assembly work is taking place. Saves steps.
Build a door frame. Make the "doors" out of lumber for the exterior portion and your pipe for in the interior portion of the door. Mount the "doors" in the frame and load up w/ clamps.
You could easily mount 2' and 4' clamps on the same "door" and various combinations on the other "doors". You could build it to take up to a 3' W x 1' D x 7' H space.
Are there some you don't use as often? If faced with that problem, I might consider some simple ceiling-mounted racks between the light fixture, I'm thinking just a couple of rods of some sort, rest on or clamp to one and rest the end on the other, not something that swings up and down. This would take a step stool or something to get them down, of course.
Before I put the ceiling panels in my shop that's where I usually stuck my modest collection of clamps to keep them out of the way - clamped to and resting on the top of the bottom truss member.
I used to have a 2 x 4 lag bolted to the wall up high and another lower. One jaw of the clamp would hang on the top one and the bar would rest on the other. Very simple and usually effective, but the upper rest would gradually tip down and the clamps would not stay in place. I fixed it several times but it would slowly tip under the weight of the clamps. Then on Bill's advice, I bought a dozen more clamps.
I mentioned my row of fingers. I looked and it slowly came back to me what I did. I had some reclaimed pallet wood, Oak. I cut about 18 pieces 2 3/4 by 1 1/2" by ten inches long and other pieces (fingers) 1 1/2" square and 12" long. I joined one of each together at with a very strong box joint at right angles centering the finger on the wide side of the leg of the L. The free end of the fingers were radiused. Then I glued all the legs together to form a long coat rack. The fact the Legs were wider than the fingers created spaces between the fingers wide enough to slip the clamps into and the fingers were wide enough to accommodate a clamp on both sides. Then I sat the assembly on top of the existing 2X4 on the wall and bolted the top of the back to the top plate of the wall.
It finally dawned on me I could have used the same width lumber for both pieces and then glued in a spacer to accommodate the clamps, but I'm not that smart. And I had to cut off two of the fingers because they were exactly long enough to interfere with my garage door, so now they are half and inch shorter.
I'm thinking I might use the wall just inside my door to hang the really big clamps. As least as many as I can. then right in front of that make a mobile cart that's a sort of A frame. Longer clamps on the outside with a sliding middle partition that would have all the smaller clamps. Even then it may not hold enough. I'll have to build a sort of test piece to see if it's feasible. Takes up a lot of room to store all those clamps that are in the 24 to 36" range.
There once was an incentive ( rewards ) to be inventive. since the internet, not so much. Only you know what your space conditions truly are and what you want. I'm sure you can find your solution if you look and enough. It's not worth my time to guess exactly what you want. Those days are over, I gave it my best shot with dust collection, and am very disappointed bin the lack of todays incentive to motivate.
Or should I say peoples lack of appreciation. I'm going through the same problem at the Patriot Woodworker. Where the freedom of speech is discouraged, bullying and brainwashing are common practice from management.
