No prob sky- happy to share dimensions.
Here ya go Thex- "How To Make A Graflex Clamp in 48 easy steps!" (haha...)
I started with a piece of 304 Stainless, 20 Gauge, 2" x 6". All edges cleaned up on a belt sander.
I decided that the 8 lines on the clamp were important to the look, so decided to give them a shot.
I laid them out in pencil, and carefully whacked them in using this sharp chisel:
There were a few scratches where the chisel jumped after striking. But the lines look parallel, which was my biggest worry. It takes CAREFUL chisel placement to get 4 lines evenly spaced 1/16" apart. . .
Notice how the chiseled lines buckle the piece. They also stretch the piece so that the sides are no longer straight. I did some flattening from the backside, and trued up the sides on the belt sander.
I sanded out the worst of the scratches and then gave it a trip on the buffing wheel. Some scratches still there, but good 'nuff. (it's a weapon, after all!)
That was the easy part. To bend the ends, I clamped the piece tightly between pieces of bar that had nice sharp edges.
I worked the edges over using a combination of pushing and hammering.
This part will drive you mad. The vise held my "test pieces" pretty well, since they were small strips. The full 2" wide piece was another story, and did NOT like to stay put. I ended up doing some straight hammering over anvils and stakes to get some of the edges right. (something I do a lot of in another hobby...) Also note the carefully organized work space, which is a key to success.
Once the ends were satisfactory, I bent the whole thing around a 1.5" rod. This took some muscle, some light hammering (wooden mallet) and some vise.
A nice metalworking trick: If you get the steel nice an hot, it will 'relax' to a shape you've forced it to. Not "forging hot"; just enough to get the metal to yeild and stay. That's what I did here with a MAPP torch:
Finally, you'll end up with something like this:
I still need to make the bits that hold it together, but I'm glad that part's done!
Honestly- making this clamp is a bit silly, with very good reproductions available. But I wanted it in stainless, and the bragging rights are fun I suppose...
-Jeremy