While installing a pine floor recently, I needed to find an expedient way to draw the warped boards next to their neighbors. The technique that I settled on put a couple of #56 Pony clamps to work. (These clamps differ from other pipe clamps in that they have big thumb-turn wings rather than crank handles, and the adjustable portion of the clamp slides along the pipe rather than being fixed on one end.) As shown in the drawing, I put two of the clamps on one pipe, pointing in opposite directions. One clamp is snugged against a notched block bearing on the edge of the floorboard, and the other presses against a block at the wall. Tighten the clamp at the wall to apply pressure to the board.
—Brad Schwartz, Deer Island, ME
Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #104
