Titanium Soldering Clamp Strips

So having ordered five of the Knew Concepts titanium strips about a year ago {!} I thought it was time I actually did something with them. I've heard great things about how useful they are as soldering aids so why it's taken me so long to get round to it who knows.

I think I was worried they would be hard work to bend, saw and shape being titanium and to some extent they are but not beyond most peoples' ability.

Warning! This post contains lots of photos. And the tri-colour ink on my printer was running out which is why the print out looks as though it's had a sepia filter added to it :D

My camera also developed the white screen of death half way through {and is currently away being repaired} so I had to change to my tablet to carry on with the photographing.

I decided to start with the easiest looking "clamp". This one........

I marked two points on the strip where I was going to bend it and using an old pair of flat nose pliers I made my bends.

I didn't bend the strip very acurately and certainly not as neatly as the strip in the instructions but you can manipulate the strip to get the ends level it so all is not lost.

Next I bent the end up on one side...

...and started to push the two ends closer together.

In order to get the to ends closer together you need to do that thing you do with the ends of a jump ring to get the join nice and tight.

And eventually you end up with something that looks similar to the photo.

There's a nice amount of spring in the titanium but it's also fairly easy to open and close the gap.

The next clamp I wanted to make was this one. It looked very useful.

I started by marking {quite badly} where I was going to saw off part of the end on one side.

I did it freehand despite having a ruler right next to me on the bench :D

I started sawing the strip using a blade for steel and platinum which was a bit hard-going. I then changed to a 0 size blade which was slightly easier. 

I tidied up the end then bent the strip in half.

I then bent the thin end downwards and did a bit a manipulating to get eveything level and straight.

Not exactly like the one in the photo, mine's a bit chunkier, but it's still going to be very useful.

The next design looked like the one I would find the most helpful to have. 

I marked the shape I wanted to cut off each end of the strip - more of a curve this time.

I tried a file and sanding stick to tidy the ends this time which worked really well. I bent the ends out and then started to push each side to get them closer together. I found this really hard work and annealed the titanium to see if that would help. The titanium heated up and became bright orange really quickly although it didn't feel that much softer after it had been annealed.

It was still quite a struggle to get the ends together and again needed a bit of manipulating to get everything even and flat but I got there in the end.

I didn't manage the square bends which made me wonder if it would work properly or just fall over but when I set it up as I would be using it for holding a stud post in place for soldering it worked fabulously!

This one is going to be so helpful to me as I currently use a third hand for holding posts in position for soldering as my hand isn't steady enough, and I find the third hand moves too easily and sometimes slips causing me to swear quite a lot a times. I'll definitely make another one of this style so I can set up two at once when I'm on a stud making mission :D

I have two of the strips left and one more shape to try. I think using a heftier pair of pliers {and definitely not your best jewellery pliers!} might help to get the bends a bit neater next time. 

Overall I'm looking forward to using the clamps I've made for when I'm soldering and think James Miller had a very good idea that has made certain soldering tasks an awful lot easier.