Stretcher lets small clamps tackle big-clamp jobs

While building a bookcase for my sister-in-law I needed to find a way to clamp the sides to the 90" main shelves. Because I wanted to avoid nail holes and didn't have any 8' pipe clamps, I hit on the idea of using holes in a board to hold small bar clamps like those shown. To make the clamp jig, I cut a board 1" shorter than the inside dimension of the bookcase. Next, I drilled a 2" hole in each end of the board to accept one jaw of the bar clamp. I had to make several trips back and forth as I slowly increased the tension on each clamp, but the results meant I didn't have to buy and store overly large pipe clamps. —Shirley Sanford, Amherst, Nova Scotia