I do all of my work with c-clamps, pipe clamps, and vise grips. Now I realize how empty my life has been the entire time. C-clamps in particular are handy. Like the letter C, they're useful.
But limiting your communication to iterations of the letter C would be foolish. Similarly, why limit your workshop activities to clamps shaped like the letter C? There are 25 other letters in the English alphabet. Make use of them with Robb Godshaw's Alphabet Clamps. Godshaw explains the importance of his innovation:
The c-clamp: for millennia, a paragon of clamping excellence. Unchanged for centuries, people of my generation and my father's and grandfather's generations have clamped with one letter and one letter only.
But why C? And why now? Why privilege this consonant over all the others? Here at Clamp Co., we thought we would introduce change. But we decided not to throw the baby out with the clamp water.
And we set out to develop an entire line of alphabet clamps.
Godshaw is the artist-in-residence at Autodesk's Pier 9 workshop. He designed his letters in the DIN 1451 font and milled them out of steel. He drilled in appropriate holes and stripped existing c-clamps for the moving parts.
The result is an alphabet of clamps that can be used separately or in original combinations. You may not see an immediate use for a q-clamp. But if you have one around your workshop long enough, you'll eventually find one.
-via Hack A Day