Woodriver Clamps

[Jim Rimmer]

Woodcraft has their 40" Woodriver bar clamps on sale for $30.50 from now till the end of the year. Are they worth buying? I was considering ordering 4 of them.

[Dave Gaul]

IIRC, they are K-body spec'ed by Bessey, but made in China. I can't remember where, but I did read that somewhere!

[Will Boulware]

I bought the 4 pack when they were on sale ~6 months ago. Mine say made in India. They clamp just fine once you get used to how they work. Using them to build a bench now, and I'm not really sure how happy I'd be without them. I'd definitely buy them again. YMMV.

[Mark Godlesky]

Yes, these are a copy of the old style Bessey's and are in fact licensed by Bessey. As mentioned they are made in India. I have them in a couple of different sizes and am happy with mine. One difference is these have plastic handles, where the old Bessey's had wooden ones.

[Joe Angrisani]

I'm happy with mine, too. Pretty much what Will and Mark said.

[Erik France]

I have a pair of woodriver 40s and four 12" ones. I wouldn't buy woodriver clamps again. I've been spending a little bit more to get the new besseys. They are very similar to the old K-bodies, but the quality just isn't there. My 12" ones will slip now. There is nothing more frustrating than tightening down on a clamp during a hurried glueup and it not working.

There are two threaded studs inside the clamp assembly that engage the bar. My studs are stripping out. I've given them some 1/3 turns to get 'em working again. Someday I'll ID the studs and get some new ones. I used to use the 12" clamps a lot. Maybe I overtightened or I got a set with bad steel. My revos and K-bodies haven't failed me yet. My woodriver 40's are working fine, but they don't get a whole lot of use.

[Dave Gaul]

Ooops! India, well guess that's the "correctly" part of IIRC!!!

[David Weaver]

I would rather see if I could find NOS old style bessey clamps if I wanted more.

When jet came out with those huge clunky clamps they just about ruined bar clamps for me. Everyone followed suit and made unnecessarily heavy clamps for general use with a bunch of gadgetry on them.

I have a half and half mix of jets and old bessey clamps. Looked at the WRs, but I couldn't find a good reason to pay almost as much for them as german made clamps with much better looking and cleaner bars. It's already hard enough to get stuff off of the bessey bars, don't need a matte surface to make it even harder. (and with the german made clamps, you know exactly what you're getting)