Shopsmith Maxi-Clamp Information, Review and History

If there was ever a Rube Goldberg award for clamps, The Shopsmith Maxi-Clamp System would win hands-down!


The Maxi Clamp came in a cardboard box (See "two versions" below) and was made-up of cast aluminum corners, and knobs which were connected by 3/8" threaded rod. The kit came complete with about 17,000 washers, nuts and wing nuts, and a few coupling nuts to allow the extension of the all-thread. Of course you can always buy more 3/8" threaded rod at your local hardware store. I always found it a bit cumbersome to put together, but it has some rather amazing capabilities.



One of the coolest parts of the Maxi-Clamp are the large knobs. They have a unique thread that allows the knob to be loosened about 1/2 a turn and then the knob can be slid off the length of rod. A lot of folks thought this know was defective because of the odd thread, but if you know about it it's really neat.



There have been two versions of the packaging of the Maxi-Clamp, though the clamp itself remained the same. The original version is shown in the photo above, while later versions used a heavy, two-layer (stacking) cardboard box with the parts tossed-in in bulk. I prefer the bulk version, but I'd take either.

I've purchased several of these kits in eBay and have used the knobs on jigs and fixtures in my shop. These sets typically sell for $50-75 + S&H

Click here for listings of the Shopsmith Maxi-Clamps for Sale