Bessey clamps

[VW mick]

Hi

I've a question about cleaning dry glue of of the Bessel clamps I've tried a few things but I think I've cleaned on of them a bit too much and it seems to have lost a bit of its grip when tightening it up

Any ideas ?

Obviously avoidance would be the answer but there always seems to be glue left on them

 

[peter halle]

Do you have a standard glue you use?

Peter

 

[bertv]

I use a heat gun and a wire brush. And before using them again I will oil them (lightly!) with WD40 — a tip I saw on YT.

 

[ear3]

Are you saying that in cleaning the bars, you may have removed material/abraded some of the ribbing?  That would be pretty difficult to do IMO.  Maybe its that glue has built up too much in certain places (but usually when that happens the head won't slide over it)?  I rub some paste wax on the bars every so often to keep the glue from sticking.

 

[Gregor]

Options for when you have glue stuck to the bars of the clamps you can cold spray it to minus something °C and it'll get very brittle, heat it up with a head gun till it fails or burns up or scrape it off with a chisel that needs sharpening anyway.

A slight coat of oil or wax to protect the rails from corrosion is a good plan anyway.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Bessy makes many styles of clamp...

Some have smooth bars like the Festool clamps and if the surface of the bar is too smooth then the head will slip.

Some have closely spaced indentations that catch some type of pawl so the head locks in place on the bar. With the later type you can wax the bar to keep glue from sticking and the head will still lock in place.

 

[Steven Owen]

Are you saying that in cleaning the bars, you may have removed material/abraded some of the ribbing?  That would be pretty difficult to do IMO.  Maybe its that glue has built up too much in certain places (but usually when that happens the head won't slide over it)?  I rub some paste wax on the bars every so often to keep the glue from sticking.

Ear3 has the right idea.  Waxilit or Johnson’s paste wax prevents the glue from sticking.  It beats having to scrub tools down with acetone afterwards. 

 

[Birdhunter]

Does waxing the bars induce slipping?

 

[Timtool]

I suppose this is about the KRV parallel clamps? I just leave it be, I obviously try to minimize squeeze-out. But found that glue remains on the bars don't have any effect on the clamp performance. Anything too big get's removed by sliding the head up and down the bar once. I think that trying to keep the bars pristine looking is a lost battle.

 

[Steven Owen]

Does waxing the bars induce slipping?

Not if you do it right and wipe off the excess wax after it turns white.

 

[sancho57]

I dont worry about it until the clamps wont slide or tighten that hasnt happened yet and the are pretty mucked up

 

[Cochese]

I had a couple Jet clamps that I thought had glue on the bars and they kept slipping, but kept slipping even after I had cleaned and inspected them.

Turned out there was some very fine dust inside the clamp head itself, so I disassembled, wiped off the fine dust, and the problem was solved.

 

[TheSergeant]

I ran into the same issue.  Glue all over my Bessey REVOs.  I tried a few things but most recently had a lot of success with Citri-Strip paint remover.  They also make an "adhesive remover" that I make try as well.  If you happen to have some give it a shot.