What clamps to start with...

[Mike Sayre]

The kids want to get me something for x-mas...I just started getting tools to build up my want to be wood making hobby...lol....I got several tools i dont have no clamps and was told clamps you never have enough...The question is what clamps should i get to start with..And where to get good clamps

[David Giles]

Mike, like yourself, I heard that "you can never have enough clamps". I have racks of clamps that have never been used. So my suggestion is buy two of each clamp style at first (bar, wood, spring, pipe, C clamp, etc). Then each project should have a tool budget to go along with the wood budget. Only buy the clamps that you need.

That said, springs clamps are cheap and have a myriad of uses. Parallel jaw clamps are the mainstay of most woodworkers. Four 30" and four 60" clamps will cover most cabinet and furniture applications. Cheap Harbor Freight clamps can fill in if you need more, lower quality clamps.

Lots of sources, but Amazon.com is a good starting point.

[Ted Wong]

Before I ever started using Parallel jaw clamps (which I ony use for their length now) I have always used Wetzler steel jaw clamps. Expensive yes, but USA made and durable as a Sherman tank.

[mreza Salav]

I used to get different (cheaper) F-clamps as well as those aluminum clamps. Then started using parallel jaws and that's what I only buy (and almost always use). Expensive, yes but they work much better than others.

[Neal Clayton]

i typically avoid the borg for things other than sandpaper and tack cloth but i must admit, those irwin quick grip clamps at home depot are pretty handy for everyday use, and the bigger ones are big enough to clamp small boxes together even.

[C Scott McDonald]

A few of the jet clamps. I have always liked good ole C clamps too myself. I have all different sizes of them.

[Ray Newman]

The old pipe clamps for ½” and ¾” pipe are a bit passé now, but they work! The Jorgension #50 and 52 clamp hedas are not very expensive and it is easy to extend the length using thread couplings.

The clamp heads and pipe can be found at hardware stores and the big box store outlets.

I still use mine at times and made up a 7’ long clamp to clamp the diagonal to square up the carcass.

For years, Jorgensen/Adjustable Clamp Company was the pipe clamp company.
www.adjustableclamp.com/cfix_pg.htm (http://www.adjustableclamp.com/cfix_pg.htm)

The #53 clamp is ideal for clamping up panels as the clamp head applies pressure from both sides on the panel.

[Bryan Morgan]

Home Depot has a good little starter set of Irwin clamps for $25. A couple clamps in there are about $10 each when bought separately so its a pretty good deal.

[Victor Robinson]

Jet parallel clamps (or Bessey K body). A high quality pair or two of parallel clamps (say 24" and 40 or 50" )will go a long way. The cabinet set (2x 24" and 2x 40", around $160-170 depending on retailer) is a good starter set of parallel clamps.

And then a bunch of F-style clamps...Bessey or similar, in say 8" or 12". You'll use them for just about everything. Along the same vein, Irwin quickgrips, which many people swear by.

[Mike Heidrick]

Menards and Home Depot sell Jorgensen cabinet master parallel clamps. Lowes sells Bessey Revos. Amazon has about anything you want. I usually buy clmaps used in bulk but if your family needs a BORG to buy from you cannot go wrong with any of those.

Two 24" and two 40" to start. Then add another set of the same. That would be an EXCELLENT start.

[John Fabre]

+1 Jorgensen cabinet master parallel clamps or Bessey's, you should be able to get them local. Buy in pairs.

[glenn bradley]

As you can see, you will get answers on this as varied as the folks who use them and the type of work they do. The Wetzlers Ted mentions are top quality but shallow of throat and therefor not much good where a deep f-style clamp is required; they make many styles. F-style clamps have varied sizes and depths but can pull things out of square quite easily. Parallel clamps are good for folks like me that work in a flat, square world most of the time. Many small f-style or c-clamps serve a bentwood or laminate worker best.

Consider what you are going to do and buy accordingly. That way you don't end up like the folks that have a rack full of clamps they never use. Better 4 or 8 good users than a dozen that just hang on the wall, eh?

[Curt Harms]

4 ea. 24" & 48" parallel jaw for cabinets, glued up panels and such. The quick clamps are handy as an extra hand or two--use 'em to hold things in approximate position, clamp the other end then come back and reposition. They're easier to release & reset one handed than any other clamp that I can think of. When everything is where you want it, then use bar clamps, F style clamps, whatever you have.

[Mike Heidrick]

The Wetzlers I used had a very deep throat - 12" I believe. I am sure there are several models of them. They would free stand on their head. Very nice clamps.

[Jay Allen]

As some have said, "asking what kind of clamps do I need" is a little like asking "what router bits do I need"?
It is hard for us to be specific about "type" with out knowing more about what kind of work you do or projects you build.
The main thing to take from this is quality. Stick with the good stuff. Cheap brands will give you nothing but problems. They twist and bend causing a lot of alignment issues during glue-ups. It's a fight you don't need.
I have quite a few Besseys, from the 60" K-bodies down to the tiniest F-clamps. They have been bought over time as additions or replacements for "bad" cheapies. I use them everyday and have at times had more than a dozen on the same project at once.

The only exception I can think of is spring clamps, the clothes-pin style. There are some applications for these where you need a lot of them at the same time. The cheap green-tipped HF ones work just as well as any other. At the shop where I work we have a clamp cart that has a section holding over 100 of them.

[Mike De Luca]

The old pipe clamps for ½” and ¾” pipe are a bit passé now, but they work! The Jorgension #50 and 52 clamp hedas are not very expensive and it is easy to extend the length using thread couplings.

The clamp heads and pipe can be found at hardware stores and the big box store outlets.

I still use mine at times and made up a 7’ long clamp to clamp the diagonal to square up the carcass.

For years, Jorgensen/Adjustable Clamp Company was the pipe clamp company.
www.adjustableclamp.com/cfix_pg.htm (http://www.adjustableclamp.com/cfix_pg.htm)

The #53 clamp is ideal for clamping up panels as the clamp head applies pressure from both sides on the panel.


This.......

[Rich Engelhardt]

Cheap Harbor Freight clamps can fill in if you need more, lower quality clamps
I had my wife pick me up 5 or 6 of the 1' squeeze style HF grips for 1.99 ea.
They slip an awful lot & you can't get any decent pressure out of them by themselves.
In order to use them, you have to clamp the work down first with another clamp, then tighten the HF clamp right next to the first clamp and so on and so and so on.

OTH - the wooden screw clamps HF sells are an excellent value when they go on sale - which isn't all that often.
Even at regular price ($3.99 for the 7") they are a decent deal.
It's hard to come close to that price by making them out of threaded rods.

[glenn bradley]

I had my wife pick me up 5 or 6 of the 1' squeeze style HF grips for 1.99 ea.
They slip an awful lot & you can't get any decent pressure out of them by themselves.

If you use this type of clamp or just want to have a few around in case. I have about a dozen of the 2" ones that Home Depot frequently has on sale for 99cents. They have done well for several years now.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Glenn,
I should have been more descriptive.
I meant the one hand squeeze ratchet bar HF frequently has for $1.99.

Not the one hand spring type.

Sorry I wasn't clearer.

[Matt Winterowd]

One piece of advice I haven't seen mentioned much: I have quite a mixed bag of clamps, and if I had to start over, I'd stick to buying the same brand of clamps (at least within a style), just to avoid minor but annoying differences in span, operation, and clamping strength. It can be kind of frustrating in the middle of a hectic glue-up, when your next parallel clamp is an inch to short, or doesn't respond to your muscle memory the same as the others.

I like to pick up the Jet clamps on sale. Both the parallel and the F-style come up for sale individually and in bundles at Woodcraft and Rockler very regularly. In fact, I believe they are on sale right now...

[Russell Smallwood]

i typically avoid the borg for things other than sandpaper and tack cloth but i must admit, those irwin quick grip clamps at home depot are pretty handy for everyday use, and the bigger ones are big enough to clamp small boxes together even.

+1 on the new Quick Grips. Personally a few good one-handed clamps is a must for any shop to quickly clamp jigs and so forth.

My pipe clamps are gathering dust due to an influx of K-bodies but I wouldn't have been able to get by without them when I first started and had no disposable shop money. Also, a big assortment of cheap F clamps can be surprisingly useful. I have some that I bought on ebay a long time ago for dirt cheap and I'm really surprised at how much use I've gotten out of them. More so the smaller ones, not so much the longer ones.

[Craig Michael]

I'm new to this board so quick question. I think I know but what is borg?

To the clamp question. The wood whisperer does a pretty good overview here. http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-12-the-big-squeeze/

My thoughts are get a few parallel bar clamps, quick clamps and F style then see where your work takes you and add appropriately. For the quick clamps the cheaper irwin ones are ok but they are not nearly as good as the more expensive irwins and the cheap ones wear out and slip with use.

My parallel clamps are Gross stabil which I like a lot but Bessey bought them and their new Revos are similar. I got mine from woodpeckers for a deal and a half when they were closing them out a few years ago. Many places will have a really good deal on clamps once a year or so and most use that as a time to add the ones that they need. So just get a few and see where your woodwork takes you and what you need.

[Mark Woodmark]

I have both Bessey and Jet parallel clamps. I like the Jets better. The handles are bigger and easier to grip and the jaw faces are bigger. Although some of the newer ones I have bought dont seem to be as good a quality as the older ones. I had to have Jet warranty two of them and have a few more I am going tpo warranty because the bar bend more easily than the old ones and the jaw faces are no longer parallel. Im disappointed in Jet as it appears they are cheapening up these clamps. The end caps on the handles of the new clamps seem to keep coming off also. I have to glue them on

[Mike Sayre]

Thanks a lot for all the great info....You guys rock!! Glad i have yous for the great info....