okay,I know others have had this happen so here goes.
at denson the plastic piece on the threaded rod that butts up against your
stand or whatever you're clamping to broke and is sort of unfunctional right
now

and instead of buying a new clamp I want to fix it.
I got some rubber vacuum caps from work that seemed like they'd work and I put
one on and whe I tried to clamp to my stand it worked but the rubber is too soft
and just started breaking off in pieces when I tightened it down and the rubber twisted.
so after a few times clamping i'll need to pop another on and I would like a more
permanent solution.