Double Bar Clamps?

[Tony Shea]

I just recently saw a picture of a panel glue up and notice a set of clamps that looked interesting and very handy. They were Shopsmith Double Bar clamps. I am checking out to see if others have any experience with these as far as panel glue ups go and maybe the occasional veneer press with them. Are they worth the money they get for them? Can I only get them through ShopSmith? Are there other manufacturers of these? They look sweet actually.

[Ray Newman]

'Nevva' made use of the ones you mentioned.

But I have easily and successfully glued up panels with the Jorgension double bar clamps and the appropiate lengths of 1/2" pipe:

https://www.adjustableclamp.com/replacementparts/products3.asp?subcatID=86

[Jerome Hanby]

Shopsmith has a video on that clamps web page of using it for a veneer press.

I've see similar clamps at Rockwell and Woodcraft. I never noticed that they had any curve on the wooden parts. From the Shopsmith descriptions these sound a lot like bow cauls with built in clamps...

[Lee Schierer]

I have never used a double bar clamp so my ideas below may be all wet; however, here they are:

I would think that the double bar clamps would be a bit of a pain to use because you have to slide them over your glue up from one end. On a longer panel glue up this would be quite a bit more work than just laying the clamp over teh wood and tightening the clamp. Also I don't like having the bars of my clamps touching the wood as the glue will sometimes react with the steel pipe and cause black marks on the wood that are difficult to remove. As far as keeping the various pieces of the glue up aligned. It appears from where I sit that the double bar clamp doesn't help much in that area. Just placing a section of pipe on each side will not force the pieces to align.

[Tony Shea]

It appears from where I sit that the double bar clamp doesn't help much in that area. Just placing a section of pipe on each side will not force the pieces to align.


I agree with you about that comment when looking at the jorgensen style double bar clamps. And I also agree that the black pipe could potentially leave black marks all over your panel, but suppose this could be compensated for with a little blue masking tape or parchment paper which would be a little more work during glue-up. And I also agree that sliding the clamps over the glue-up is another potential issue but not a huge one that couldn't be done.

But all these issues except for the sliding the clamps over are only relative to the Jorgensen style clamps. I was looking more at the ShopSmith style that actually act as bowed cauls that put pressure on each side of the panel during glue-up. In my experience I think this could be a huge help in combating misalignment issues as well as creating a bow in the panel during glue-up due to clamping pressures. I sometimes just can't avoid the bow and sometimes kills my thicknesses after glue-up while trying to get the panels flat again. Other times I end up getting a good even pressure and have no bow.

I would love to hear from some people who have tried these clamps out and see what they're opinions on these clamps are, specifically the Shop Smith versions. I've watched the video but doesn't do much in the way of someone with no affilitation giving their opinion.