Here a while back I purchased a Veritas lever lock hold fast, and while it is useful, it struggles to put enough clamping force on pieces of timber on my bench. I visited the Canberra show over the weekend, and in a rush of blood (and based on my reading here) I forked out a few bucks for a pair of Gramercy holdfasts. I also purchased a couple of slabs of Red Cedar. the first of which was 2.8m long, 400mm wide and 38mm thick. I set to on Saturday and cut the slab in half to make two shelves for a tv stand, and the first pieces was nice and flat, however the second had 8mm of warp/twist over the 1.4m length. The first slab I only had to take 1.3mm off either side, but the second half became quite a challenge.
I set to with a hand plane, and at stumps last night I had a flat and level 30mm thick slab and a big bag of shavings. My plane was nice and sharp, but the stars of the day were the gramercy holdfasts. After a little bit of trial and error I worked out how to position them so that the pressure applied planing did not cause them to let go. I estimate that I clamped and released the slab more than a hundred times over the course of the day. They made the job so much easier (0.56 square metres and 8mm in depth, so the arms/shoulders got a great workout). They hold with far greater pressure than the Veritas lever type, and are at least twice as fast to set and release. After just one day they have nice little flat spots on the curve where they get belted with a hammer to set them after the first day already.
I initially built a couple of wooden ones, but the 19mm dowel I used packed it in in a reasonably short time. The Veritas hold fast does a reasonable job, but it is chalk and cheese using the Gramercy ones. I think I have read almost every post on hold fasts on this forum and quite a few others, but having tried the three different types, I can only recommend, what appears on the surface, to be the least sophisticated product, and at half the price of the "sophisticated" type. Many would have been amused, as I marked out 150mm intervals and 19 drilled holes through my bench as required.
The other interesting learning on the way through was that as I flattened, it became easier to pick the high spots by feel than by using a straightedge. It is the largest piece that I have flattened by hand, and possibly my best effort yet. I really won't know until I get a finish on it, but I reckon I have got it very close. It took more than half the day before I could "feel" the high spots, turning the slab and working out where it was "pivoting" and then turn it back over and run my palm over it, mark the section with chalk, plane and move onto the next section. A satisfying and enlightening experience. And by the end of the day I could throw my No. 7 Jointer the full diagonal length. Muscle memory develops quickly, almost as quickly as the buckets of sweat that poured out of me. Next step will be to give the No.4 a sharpen and smooth the face to remove the odd "track" and shavings that remain partially attached.
Just posting in case any other newbies are interested. All I can say is that I wish that I had a set of these years ago.
I set to with a hand plane, and at stumps last night I had a flat and level 30mm thick slab and a big bag of shavings. My plane was nice and sharp, but the stars of the day were the gramercy holdfasts. After a little bit of trial and error I worked out how to position them so that the pressure applied planing did not cause them to let go. I estimate that I clamped and released the slab more than a hundred times over the course of the day. They made the job so much easier (0.56 square metres and 8mm in depth, so the arms/shoulders got a great workout). They hold with far greater pressure than the Veritas lever type, and are at least twice as fast to set and release. After just one day they have nice little flat spots on the curve where they get belted with a hammer to set them after the first day already.
I initially built a couple of wooden ones, but the 19mm dowel I used packed it in in a reasonably short time. The Veritas hold fast does a reasonable job, but it is chalk and cheese using the Gramercy ones. I think I have read almost every post on hold fasts on this forum and quite a few others, but having tried the three different types, I can only recommend, what appears on the surface, to be the least sophisticated product, and at half the price of the "sophisticated" type. Many would have been amused, as I marked out 150mm intervals and 19 drilled holes through my bench as required.
The other interesting learning on the way through was that as I flattened, it became easier to pick the high spots by feel than by using a straightedge. It is the largest piece that I have flattened by hand, and possibly my best effort yet. I really won't know until I get a finish on it, but I reckon I have got it very close. It took more than half the day before I could "feel" the high spots, turning the slab and working out where it was "pivoting" and then turn it back over and run my palm over it, mark the section with chalk, plane and move onto the next section. A satisfying and enlightening experience. And by the end of the day I could throw my No. 7 Jointer the full diagonal length. Muscle memory develops quickly, almost as quickly as the buckets of sweat that poured out of me. Next step will be to give the No.4 a sharpen and smooth the face to remove the odd "track" and shavings that remain partially attached.
Just posting in case any other newbies are interested. All I can say is that I wish that I had a set of these years ago.
Gramercy hold fasts
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