Quote from: Piecost on Sep 12, 2026, 01:37 AM...I love the standard pins in combination with those little black, round pin clamps. A brilliant invention.
You can bodge your own pin clamps if you want. Get a thickish plastic lid, FAGE Total Yoghurt tops are ideal, and stamp out as many discs as you have pins using a hole punch. Then push the T-pins through the discs.
It's not my idea, I came across it on HPA I, but it works a treat. The discs do work loose eventually, but it's easy enough to make new.
Pin clamps, I love the idea, thanks for sharing, wish I'd known of it 65 years ago! I've just tried it with the plastic lid from a 'spreadable butter' carton and it works a treat - they will be used tonight when I build a tailplane.
Steve
Yes, thanks for sharing Lurker
Hi Lurk
The brand of Yoghurt is not known (or at least commonly available) in Oz and I don't recognise it from my time in the UK in the 90s.
Could you perhaps measure the thickness of the plastic? Many thanks
It's a Greek yogurt, very popular.......in Greece, although I think it's exported in many countries.
This kind of lid is very common. I assume you would find it in other food products as well.
Quote from: Spiros on Sep 14, 2026, 06:11 AMThis kind of lid is very common. I assume you would find it in other food products as well.
I'm sure it is, but I just want to get an idea of the thickness so I can focus my search at the supermarket - my local supermarket is quite used to me using a digital calliper to measure packaging ;D
Morning,
Polypropylene, recycling code 05, and about 0.5mm thick.
Cheers,
Lurk
Quote from: TheLurker on Sep 14, 2026, 07:50 AMMorning,
Polypropylene, recycling code 05, and about 0.5mm thick.
Cheers,
Lurk
Many thanks, O Lurk
I had a friend 3D print some. There is a hole but it really needed drilling out. As good as the original ones.
Ron
Very good Ron, but they look like some kind fungle growth!
Quote from: Piecost. . . but they look like some kind fungle growth!
Eeuuugh - never mind AI - that stuff is gonna take over the world :o
:D
I remembered that I have already done a 3D printing exercise for pinclamps. I have uploaded an .stl file that will print a dozen pinclamps. Like Ron's (Cvasec), the hole sometimes needs clearing with a drill (0.7mm seems pretty good for standard T-pins. Thicker or thinner pins need larger or smaller holes to get the right interference fit).
The upload is the the Plans Gallery in the Miscellaneous section.
A couple of photos of my 3D printed pinclamps. The second picture shows the convenient way of storing these until needed on one pin shaft.