DIY Double Flash Clamp (under €5)

I was browsing around Woodies DIY today, and spotted the following clamps for sale in the bargain basement bin at €2.99 each. The spring was strong, and the plastic seemed like the good quality, hard wearing type. So I purchased a couple with some DIY strobist work in mind…

I noticed that the plastic jaws did not have a lot of grip:

so I super-glued some bits of bicycle inner tube to them:

Next, onto the real reason for the purchase, the double flash mount. This consisted of a simple tube bolted onto one of the handles of the clamp.

The copper tube has a bit of timber jammed into it so the tube would not collapse when brolly/strobe holders are screwed onto it. A simple drill hole in the clamp handle, and a drill hole throuhg the copper pipe, with a 30mm bolt and wingnut to hold them together. All done. The Result:

They’re probably not as strong as the Manfrotto clamps, and would struggle to hold a flash out horizontally, but the have no problem holding two strobes in the position of the image above, and would have no problem hanging from something. Not bad for under a fiver….