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Snap on jaw risers for Ibex/Shop Fox Clamps

I like to use at least one Ibex clamp in the center for bridge re-glues, but the short fixed jaw doesn't allow the clamp frame to clear the brace in front of the bridge plate.

Acoustic Repair Repair and Restoration Tool Mod Tools c clamp deep c clamp ibex shop fox stewmac

I like to use at least one Ibex clamp in the center for bridge re-glues, but the short fixed jaw doesn't allow the clamp frame to clear the brace in front of the bridge plate. If I had a bridge plate shaped block for every guitar it wouldn't be a problem, but I use Stewmac sound hole clamps so I don't have to fumble around with positioning a block inside the guitar.

For years my Ibex clamps had small blocks of wood glued to the jaw which always seemed to fall off at the worst possible moment. After several failed glue attempts, I started to tape blocks onto the jaw which also eventually would get loose and fall off.

I finally got around to modeling some jaw risers that I could snap on and forget. Both the Ibex and Shop Fox jaw risers raise the jaw height to about 14mm above the clamp frame which clears most braces I've encountered. That's close to the maximum height you can add to the jaw and still get the clamp in the sound hole.

I found that the size of the clamp castings can vary, but the risers will snap in place on the ones I have. Don't forget to put some clear packing tape on the face of the jaw riser in case glue drips down through a bridge pin hole and tries to glue the jaw riser to the bridge plate. Happened to a guy I know once.

I printed mine with PLA and ABS to check how they would work with different shrinkage amounts. Prints from both materials work fine. My slicer settings are layer height = 0.2mm, wall line count = 3, infill density = 50%.