Hand Vice/Machinist Clamp with Gears
I recently found myself needing a clamp for a project at home, and couldn't find any files online I thought looked both strong and cool. I didn't feel like going to my workshop to get one, so the obvious solution was to spend several hours modelling this one, print a prototype, make edits, and have this working model two days later. It's essentially an overengineered machinist clamp, with gears added so you can operate it with one knob instead of two, plus the bonus clamping area between the threads. Hopefully it will same someone else the effort if I post it up here, so enjoy.
My goals for it were:
An clamp with an even force curve
Printable with no supports,
Requires no non-3d printed hardware,
Looks Awesome.
I didn't quite get away with zero hardware - this design requires one wood screw in the top of the rear threaded post to lock the gear in place. However it at least doesn't need any specialized hardware - and screw in the ballpark of 3/16 diameter x 3/4 inch long should work.
I also had to add one raft to the bottom of the rear screw, but feel free to try it without, if you think your printer can handle it.
I printed this one in petg for the strength, but pla would probably be fine, and might actually be better since it's so much less bendy - I'll update y'all whenever I try one.