Stanley Clamps-How Many Should I Buy

[Jim Eller]

I have a local store that is selling 18" Stanley Bailey Parallel Clamps for $15.89 each.

Is that a decent price and what quality are these things?

They look like these: http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-83-040-18-Inch-Bailey-Parallel/dp/B000LY5A7S

Thanks.

[Matt Meiser]

All of them. Seriously. I love the 6 I have. I'd love to get at least 4 more and cut them down as 12"s.

When Big Lots cleared them out, I think the 18's were $10 and the 24's were $15 but I might not be remembering that correctly. I ended up buying a couple of the latter and cutting them to 18 because I have enough Bessey 24's.

[John Coloccia]

Despite all the lousy products they make, I think they make a first class clamp. That and I like their Surform.

[Tony Shea]

Have never seen a Stanley in person. They look nice. Wish there was a local store here that carried them to check out. For that price you really can't go wrong. I love my Jorgenson Cabinet Masters.

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Matt; 4 or 6 would be good. More if you can afford it. This advice could be totally wrong depending what you do. I have a supply of 12" and 18" Bessey Uniklamps. They are lighter and easier to use than my Stanleys and I generally reach for the Stanleys last but, only because I have the Uniklamps and K-bodys available, not because they are bad clamps. The Stanleys work fine and have not given me problems at all.

[Jim Eller]

Well, I took Matt's advise and rushed out and bought all of them. They only had 214 of 'em.:D


Well, not exactly. They had eight of them and may get more.

I tried them at differect ranges and they seem to hold as good as my Bessey's. I do like the handles much better for getting a grip with old guy hands.

I just wish they had some longer ones. I'll just keep checking.

Thanks,
Jim

[Norman Pyles]

I have 4 of the Stanley's. They work fine, but they will leave a black mark on your projects just like black pipe. Also the plastic feet didn't stay on mine either. The large plastic handles are great though.

[scott spencer]

I like my Jets a little better, but $15.89 is at about half the going rate of the Jets...8 of the Stanleys are better than 4 of the Jets IMHO. :D

[Ellen Benkin]

I was lucky enough to get a pair of 12" from an Odd Lots store for less than $10. A woodworking friend found them and bought all they had. I took a set just to test them and absolutely think they are terrific. Not only are they great clamps, they can be reversed and used as spreaders. I wish I could find more

[John Coloccia]

re: black marks

These days I use galvanized for my pipe clamps, but when I had black pipe, I put a piece of wax paper between the pipe and the work to keep it from marking. It's especially bad at the glue line, and I usually just put a small piece of wax paper right at that point. I don't find that it really transfers very much, if at all, away from the glue line. That's just my experience.

[Jim Eller]

I have 4 of the Stanley's. They work fine, but they will leave a black mark on your projects just like black pipe. Also the plastic feet didn't stay on mine either. The large plastic handles are great though.

Norman,

Are you speaking of the F-style clamp? The parallel clamps I purchased do not have any rubber on them.

They had that style also but I didn't pick any up. They were about the same price.

Jim

[David DeCristoforo]

Never used those particular clamps but I can tell you this: There is no such thing as "too many clamps".

[Bob Vallaster]

Jim,
Is your 'local store' part of a bigger/franchise operation?

Tangent to the topic. I bought some during the Big Lots clearance ~ a year ago. Several were missing the yellow plastic bar support. I ordered 10 of them from Stanley directly for (I thinK) about 75 cents each. All are configured as they should be, and I have spares for breakage...

BobV

[Dave Lehnert]

I like them a lot. Mix well with other like clamps.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=140153&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1264799964

So you going to give up who your local store is?:D

[Norman Pyles]

Norman,

Are you speaking of the F-style clamp? The parallel clamps I purchased do not have any rubber on them.

They had that style also but I didn't pick any up. They were about the same price.

Jim
I didn't see the word "rubber" in my post, and yes I was referring to the parallel clamps. :)

[Jim Eller]

Norman - I apologize. :o

Dave - I like the color combination of the red and yellow. Looks like about $300 worth of color:)

Bob/Dave - The store is one of those Chinese garage sale places. I don't know where all the stores are but they have a web site. http://workshoptools.com/

[Jay Jeffery]

Bob/Dave - The store is one of those Chinese garage sale places. I don't know where all the stores are but they have a web site. http://workshoptools.com/

Thanks for sharing the link. Those parallel clamps are great and I'd buy all I could reasonably justify. I have a pair each of the 18", 36" and 48". I've been tempted to cut down a pair of the longer ones as they don't get used much, but I know I'd regret it.

If they have the 5" deep F-clamps (http://store.workshoptools.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=wst&Product_Code=30003021&Category_Code=barclamps) in any length you would do well to pick some up. I bought a pair each of the 24" and 30" a few years ago. They weren't getting used much, so I cut them down to 12" and they now easily my favorite clamps in the shop. They get used as much as all other clamps put together. I highly recommend them.

[Van Huskey]

http://workshoptools.com/

Thanks for the link there are some interesting gems in their.

[Jim Eller]

Jay,

They did have a lot of the 5" deep F-style clamps in various sizes.

They looked good but I wasn't sure how they were in actual use. I'll pick a few up today on your recommendation. If they don't work, I'll need your home address:D

Jim

[Kevin Gregoire]

i would love to try some of the Stanley clamps, looks like you can get a really good grip on the handle.
wish biglots still had them for the prices you all mentioned i would buy a bunch.

been thinking about which clamp to start buying to build a small collection (one or two a month) and i
have heard that a lot of creekers really like the Stanley clamps but these reviews are a few years old
so i wanted to check back to see how everyone is still liking them?

[Bobby O'Neal]

Seriously? Nobody is calling gloat on this one?

Well, I think Jim sucks. ;)

Great score!

[Kevin W Johnson]

Thanks for the link there are some interesting gems in their.


Well, since this has been revived anywway....

I was in one of their stores in Myrtle Beach, SC. It was rather interesting, and I came back with a few things I hadn't seen before. All of it was small stuff since the vehicle was packed to the max on the way down there.