How many clamps to you own? What types?

[RMDavis]

In the thought of you can never have too many clamps, how many to you own?  What types?  What clamps to you have that you bought but never use?

 

[Rutabagared]

Dozens and dozens from various manufacturers.  Bessey parallels, many f-style (heavy and light duty), quick clamps, some toggle clamps, spring clamps, Festool clamping elements and screw clamps, hand screws, hold fasts.  If I were starting new, I would stock up on Bessey EHK quick clamps.  They're impressive.  I reach for them all the time, even edge to edge glue-ups as a supplement to the parallel clamps - but if you took care during clamping, they could easily replace the parallel jaw clamps for these types of glue-ups.  In addition, their rubber pads grip very well and also provide enough "squish factor" for clamping odd-shaped pieces as in the curved upper rail in the photo.

A sample of the small f-style clamps during a recent glue-up below. . . as they say . . you can never have too many.  I have many more but they do not have protective pads on the jaws, so they're only used when more are needed.

[attachimg=1]

The two small f-style closest in the photo are Lee Valley generics.  I mention them because they work very well and are a great vallue.  The aspect that I'm most impressed with is their ability to engage so easily with little pressure or angling . . better than any other clamps I own, bar none.  I'm going to add more during my next order.

 

[kevinculle]

A good number, but not nearly enough.

 

[gunnyr]

I need TWO more to make me feel secure. [big grin]

 

[ChuckM]

Snip. What clamps to you have that you bought but never use?

None.

The web/band clamps almost never got used, but they were used a few times not too long ago. I even got one more after finding them useful.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I have a stack of the Frontline panel clamps when doing tables, doors, etc, several of the Bessey 3 way clamps for edging (they're seriously awesome clamps!), a bunch of short pipe clamps for ad-hoc larger glue-ups, and a huge amount of F clamps ranging from 200 x 50 to 750 x 150. As I do loads of small glue ups I use many dozens of the F clamps at a time, and recently bought another 40 off Ebay.

My Frontline clamps are my pride and joy though, I absolutely love using them, by far the best clamps I've ever used, just amazing results every time and a dream to use.

 

[hdv]

I haven't counted them, but I am sure I must easily own more than 100 clamps. Most of them from the Bessey and Klemmsia brands. Just like [member=3075]sawdustinmyshoes[/member] I really like the one-handed Bessey's. I hate the Bessey Kliklamps I have though and will probably get rid of them sooner than later. It is just too easy to shift workpieces when tightening them. Or, more accurate, it is quite hard not to shift workpieces in relation to each other when pulling them tight. I also have a few pairs of Dubuque hand screws in different sizes and am always surprised at how many applications I find for them. Hand screws are great! I got a fair number of Woodpeckers clamping squares with the clamps that go with them too. At first I was a bit sceptical about them and put them aside for quite a while. But lately I find I use them quite often and have become glad I bought them.

 

[RussellS]

More than I need.  I say that because I have lots and lots of the same clamps.  More than you can use at one time.  So I have third and fourth string backups to the clamps being used.  Unlike glue or wood, which are used up when used, with clamps you can just reuse them over and over again.  So you don't really need many backups.

I have about 22 Bessey K body in 24".  About 12 Bessey K body in 40".  About 18 Bessey K body in 50".  These are the 30 year old original red plastic silver metal bar clamps.  About 30 years ago the two Sears stores in town were getting rid of all their Bessey K body clamps.  And I bought all of them.

12 or so orange Pony F clamps.  12 and 24 inch lengths.  These are handy when I don't care about the wood.  Small metal heads could maybe damage the wood if clamping too hard.

12 Irwin quick grip clamps.  12 and 24 and 36 inch lengths.  Very handy to clamp anything and everything and not worry about the wood being damaged.  Because the pads are rubber, plastic.

5-6 or so Pony pipe clamps from 3 to 4 to 5 feet.  Hardly use them since I have the Bessey K body clamps.

2 wood screw clamps.  Rarely used.

Doxens of spring clamps from about 1 inch up to about 6 inches.  Maybe 30 in total.  Not used much because they don't really clamp stuff.  Not strong enough.

40 different metal C clamps for metal working.  Every size from 1 inch up to 8 inches.  Rarely use them.  Almost all are Sears.  Sears had a sale on them about 30 years ago and I bought way too many.  All still shiny brand new.  These are the least used of all my clamps.  They are slow to wind in and out.  And for wood you can use the Pony F clamp or the Quick Grip clamps much easier.

6 or so Record F clamps.  12 and 24 inch.  Bought 30 years ago.  Similar to the heavy duty metal Bessey F clamps.  But my Record are much heavier and stouter.  Each one weighs about 5 pounds.  Problem is they twisted out of alignment after using them to squeeze some big wood together.  So they are basically weights now.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

A lot.....but not enough. Mine are mostly Bessey, K-Body and F type. The rest are Festool dog-hole style, plus one pair of cheap off-brand ones (that I don't really like)
I guess the Geckos count too, they clamp the rails, as do the pistol-grip ones.
There are the vacuum powered panel clamps too

 

[PaulMarcel]

How do those vacuum clamp heads squeeze the joint? I guess I'm wondering how you pull the parts together with the center post since I don't see a way to tighten them. Really cool for solid surface; not that I've ever worked with any haha

 

[woodferret]

if you ever need pads for the festool/bessey track clamps...
https://www.printables.com/en/model/22488-t-slot-clamping-pad

 

[Michael Kellough]

How do those vacuum clamp heads squeeze the joint? I guess I'm wondering how you pull the parts together with the center post since I don't see a way to tighten them. Really cool for solid surface; not that I've ever worked with any haha

WAS, Pretty sure the big black things are pneumatic pistons pulling the white blocks together, but I don’t see any connections to the tubing…

 

[luvmytoolz]

How do those vacuum clamp heads squeeze the joint? I guess I'm wondering how you pull the parts together with the center post since I don't see a way to tighten them. Really cool for solid surface; not that I've ever worked with any haha

WAS, Pretty sure the big black things are pneumatic pistons pulling the white blocks together, but I don’t see any connections to the tubing…

Looks like the blocks have channels inside them judging by the red air hose connecting them, and the pistons must have ports underneath going into the block I would say. The locking levers I'd say are to hold them in place once they've closed up as much as possible so you don't need to maintain the air pressure?

 

[squall_line]

How do those vacuum clamp heads squeeze the joint? I guess I'm wondering how you pull the parts together with the center post since I don't see a way to tighten them. Really cool for solid surface; not that I've ever worked with any haha

WAS, Pretty sure the big black things are pneumatic pistons pulling the white blocks together, but I don’t see any connections to the tubing…

Looks like the blocks have channels inside them judging by the red air hose connecting them, and the pistons must have ports underneath going into the block I would say. The locking levers I'd say are to hold them in place once they've closed up as much as possible so you don't need to maintain the air pressure?

Here's a version of the seam setter/panel clamp from Omni:

 

[Michael Kellough]

Thanks squall line, so the little screws are for adjusting the height of the material and the big black parts are bushings and hand actuated nuts for moving the connecting rod.

The Omni is very impressive.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

I fit a lot of solid surface countertops and I have 3 x seam setters, bought 10 years ago (I think) for around £250 the triple set. The one in the video is (in my opinion) vastly over-the-top, containing a bunch of solutions to non-existent problems. Mine use the same type of suction cups as the ones used to carry around sheets of glass or paving slabs. Once you place a cup on the surface, depress it to squeeze most of the air out, and flip over the lever - it's going absolutely nowhere. They're literally impossible to pull off either vertically or laterally. The setters have a pair of vertical screws which set the exact height of each piece to be jointed, then once the joint's been positioned and injected with color-matched acrylic resin, the two halves of the joint are pulled together using a regular screw such as you'd find on a sash clamp. Squeeze-out  is cleaned off using a plastic spatula, and once set, the seam is wet-sanded using progressively finer grits, followed by 4000-grit dry diamond polishing = perfect, 100% invisible joints every time. The setters have 4" of clearance under the screw clamp to get your spatula and your hand underneath.

With the one in the video, when you pull the joint together, how are you supposed to access the top of the joint to remove squeeze-out? How does the spatula and your hand possibly fit underneath all of that stuff?

Hard pass for me.

 

[Cheese]

What clamps do you have that you bought but never use?

A pair of these, bought them about 20 years ago and have yet to use them. Loved the idea but they've just never worked out.

[attachimg=1]

 

[peacefulandpatriotically]

I find spring clamps to be the least useful; they either don't fit the work correctly, get in the way of other clamps or resting surface or don't have enough clamping pressure given the work thickness.

 

[PaulMarcel]

I also bought those corner clamps. Seemed like a good idea. Might have used them 8 times.

As for spring clamps, I repurposed the small ones in the house as much better bag clips

 

[ChuckM]

What clamps do you have that you bought but never use?

A pair of these, bought them about 20 years ago and have yet to use them. Loved the idea but they've just never worked out.

[attachimg=1]

Correction to my last"none" reply. I, too, have this kind of Bessey clamp that has never been used in a real job.  :-\