Bessey or Gross Stabil

[Allen Grimes]

Can anybody tell me where I can get a good deal on either one of these brands of clamps. I have no clamps at all (well i have 3 6"c-clamps) and I want to try to only buy quality clamps. By the way, I'm specificly looking for 50" or so paralel(sp?) jaw clamps.

[John Shuk]

www.Amazon.com has a good price on the bessey K body and if you go to WWW.deltamachinery.com you can download a coupon for a $7.00 rebate on them. That is a real good savings. just look for the page of offers at delta.

[Allen Grimes]

Did you mean the promotion page? I dont find that coupon anywhere, not even on the promotion page and if there is a separate offers page I can't find that either.

[Mike Tempel]

The GS are on sale at allprotools.com. I have seen them cheaper but thought I would let you know in case you are shopping around.

[Allen Grimes]

I actually seen the 50" K-bodys for $20 a piece at busybeetools.com before but it just seemed to good to be honest. Now that same site is selling them for $63 a piece.

Anyway, Mike, Have you ever purchased anything form allprotools.com before or has anybody else for that matter?

[Ken Leshner]

Allen,

I've bought some stuff from allprotools.com including some Gross Stabil clamps they had on sale a while ago. No problems.

[Allen Grimes]

Thanks guys I'm going to talk this over with the woman incharge to see how many I can buy.

[Nathan Goins]

My local Woodcraft has Gross Stabils on sale for 25% off. I bought a couple pair, wanted to try those out anyways. JFYI

[Charles McKinley]

Lowes here has their 50" on sale for the same price as the 40" I think it is $40.

[Allen Grimes]

Well I am definately not ordering from allprotools.com they want to charge $100 for shipping.

[Hoa Dinh]

...if you go to WWW.deltamachinery.com you can download a coupon for a $7.00 rebate on them.

That coupon, or at least the valid version of it, doesn't exist online. The printed version is included in the coupon book from Delta as part of the X5 tool deal.

The picture of the coupon floating around the internet is a scanned image of the page in the coupon book. I think Delta used it as part of their ad compaign for X5 program. The image has the word "Sample" across so you can't use it.

[Glenn Clabo]

I PM'd you something Allen. Also...Lee Valley is going to have a Bessey sale starting the 28th.

[Mike Tempel]

Allen,

Yes I have bought some clamps from allpro - GS's in fact. But no they did not want a hundred bucks for shipping when I bought them. In fact I am not so sure part of the sale was not free shipping. I just don't remember even though it was not that long ago.
Rockler is having a 25% off sale - on one item only (non power tools). I don't know off hand if they carry Bessey's or GS or not. I plan on getting the Leigh D4 dovetail jig on this sale. At 25% off that is quite a deal.
Have you considered the Jorgy's Cabinet Masters? I have quite a few of them and have come to really like them. I grab them before my Bessey's most of the time - but that is generally a size issue as my Besseys are all 50" and my Jorgy's go from there to 24". The GS's that I have are 36" and I have found that all three are about the same IMHO.

Thanks, Mike.

[Rob Russell]

Just as a thought to get yourself going in clamps, consider an alternative - 3/4" pipe clamps.

I now have a reasonable collection of Bessey's and the Jorgy Cabinet Masters. I also still have and like the Jorgy pipe clamps. For about $10 each + some black pipe, you have extremely flexible clamps. Need it longer - like for clamping up an 8' box for a pantry I did for my brother? Screw 2 sections of pipe together.

The newer Irwin brand clamps don't even require that the foot be mounted on a threaded end - it's a clutched setup.

Are pipe clamps as cool or nice as the K-body/GS/CM's? Nope. For around $120 you can get yourself (8) clamps and pipe. That's a great way to start your clamp collection.

This doesn't mean I wouldn't start buying a set of the nicer clamps. Let's say that you get the Ok to spend about $300 on clamps. You could buy:

(8) cabinet clamps (~$320 + S/H) or
(4) cabinet clamps (~$160) + (8) clamps ($10.39 each for 8+ at Tools-Plus) + 40' of 3/4" pipe @ $1/ft =~ $320.
Just an option for you to consider.

Rob

[Ken Garlock]

Yes, last summer I bought some Gross Stabil clamps from All Pro Tools. They were closing out the previous model. The price on the closout was like 40-50 percent off. The shipping was reasonable considering that the clamps are heavy.

Currently All Pro is having a 10% off sale on the G-S clamps. The biggest is an 80" clamp for $45. Check it out at All Pro Tools (http://www.allprotools.com/store/page221.html#1015)

I have a gaggle of Besseys, but I usually reach for the Gross Stabil clamps first - I think they are easier to use. YMMV.

[Jason Tuinstra]

The mainstay in my shop are the K-body's. I really like them. But just recently I ended up buying two 50" Jorgy Cabinet Masters and I must say, I like them better than the Bessy's. I have a couple G-S clamps, but I never liked the handles on them - too small for my Dutch hands.

[Allen Grimes]

Rob,
I considered going the for pipe clamps first just to get my collection started but I figure since I will be speciallizing in kitchens that I may as well start with Parallel-Jaws.

Ken,
I actually was in the process of ordering those GS clamps from All Pro but unless they had a problem last night they are asking over $100 for 10 60" clamps.

Jason,
My ex-teacher said he had some jorgies but he got rid of them because they didn't lock. I also read something similar in a magazine I think FWW. You never had any problems like that?

[Allen Grimes]

Well Lee Valley has the best non-sale prices on Besseys but those jorgies look pretty tempting at $41 for 60" Im just going to wait on the Bessey sale and decide then hopefully they'll also have reasonable shipping.

Thanks everybody, though if you continue to find good prices I'll be more than greatful.

By the way does anybody know if the rockler sale counts for only 1 of the item I choose or if I can buy as many as I want of the same item and still get the sale price?

[Ken Garlock]

...
Ken,
I actually was in the process of ordering those GS clamps from All Pro but unless they had a problem last night they are asking over $100 for 10 60" clamps.


Wow, if you ordered 10 for $100, you must have been wearing a mask and carrying a gun :D No, I didn't see a deal like that, but I wish I had :)

[Allen Grimes]

Ken,

I'm sorry for confusing you. That was over $100 for the shipping along with the $360 sale price. So in the end it was more like $460 for 10 clamps. I didn't remember that only I knew what I was talking about when I wrote that.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Jason,
My ex-teacher said he had some jorgies but he got rid of them because they didn't lock. I also read something similar in a magazine I think FWW. You never had any problems like that?

Nope, no problems here.

[Allen Grimes]

Ken, I just checked again and these are the results I got.<TABLE class=totals style="WIDTH: 78px; HEIGHT: 25px"><TBODY><TR><TD class=totals_txt>Subtotal</TD><TD class=totals>$359.80</TD></TR><TR><TD class=totals_txt>Shipping</TD><TD class=totals>$100.95</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=totals style="WIDTH: 99px; HEIGHT: 23px"><TBODY><TR><TD class=totals_txt>Tax</TD><TD class=totals>$0.00</TD></TR><TR><TD class=totals_all_txt>Total</TD><TD class=totals_all>$460.75</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Also its more expensive to be shipped to CA because they have to pay $20 in taxes and the shipping only drops $10.

Jason,

Thanks, I'm going to wait until the 28th and buy whichever is cheaper.