As I sit here typing and holding the fuselage of my Monogram Hind together while the glue dries, I wonder what kind of clamps you guys use for holding your parts together? I have seen some woodworking clamps but they look to be too strong and may break the plastic. The ideal clamp would have rubber or foam grips and have a varying degree of grip. Is there something like this out there that I haven"t found yet? O.K. my fingers are getting cramped now...

JC Hayes

Rubber bands........

Matt

There are a bunch of kinds of clamps.
You're right - you need to be careful will the spring loaded ones used for wood working. They can be to strong.
Personally I use masking tape A LOT as a clamp. I use rubber bands some. If find them hard to use in certain situations because they may get hung up on detail or I can't get them tight enough.
There are miniature versions of wood workers 'Pipe Clamps'. These are long rods with two clamp devices. One end is fixed, the other end you slide close to your subject then there is some type of ratchetting, or notching mechanism that holds the second one close. The last business part is a knob you fine tune the tightness of the second clamp portion with. Kinda like a really big C clamp. These come in various sized of rod length and you can get the business end in a couple of different sizes.
These guys come in handy.

Agreed, rubber bands and masking tape. Also wooden spring loaded clothes pins, either end, depending on the size being held. Electrical alligator clamps, known to some as roach clips. Plastic spring loaded clamps with self adjusting pads. These come 5-6 in a pack for a couple bucks at grocery and hardware stores and mail order. Self closing tweezers and hemostats. I'll often have several of these. The clothes pins and very good for tank main gun barrels because they have rounded cut outs.

Hello JC,

I've got a bunch of these... Sears Clamps

The first pair is a ratchet type clamp that only puts as much pressure on the model as you want. I love these things. I think you can pick them up at other places than Sears, but thats where I got mine.

Mike