Harbor Freight Clamps?

[Derek Arita]

Just looking for opinions on the aluminum extruded clamps and the pipe clamps. Are they any good? Do the aluminum ones flex much? Do the pipe clamps hold 90*?

[Michael W. Clark]

The pipe clamps compared to the pony ones are not very good. They do "work" but the Pony ones are a step up. I don't know that any pipe clamp will stay 90 degree to the edge.

The aluminum bar clamps feel cheap, but they do work pretty good. I don't have any others to compare them to. They are light and easy to manuever. They don't exert a lot of clamping force, for that you want a different type of clamp.

[Stew Hagerty]

I have some of the aluminum ones. I use them for lighter duty clamp-ups. They're decent. I mean, they're not Bessey K Body's by a long shot, but considering you can get 10 of the 60" HF clamps for the price of two 60" Bessey's I think it's well worth having some around the shop. I also have quite a few of the HF bar clamps. Again, they don't hold a candle to Bessy medium of HD bar clamps, but you can't beat their price.

You can never have too many clamps

[Larry Browning]

I know you didn't ask about them, but they recently(last year or so) upgraded their F clamps and for the money these are pretty good. Much better than their previous ones.

[Todd Brewer]

I have the aluminum clamps and I think they work just fine. And I agree with Larry, their F clamps are much improved. I have a lot of those and they too work just fine.

[Myk Rian]

I also have some of the aluminum ones. Not bad at all for panels.
Check them out in the store before getting to the register.

[david brum]

I have a bunch of the extruded clamps. They work fine, although you can break the cast iron head off if you over tighten them. The beauty of these clamps is that you can clamp 6 or 8 onto a panel and still be able to move it around the shop. Try that with parallel or pipe clamps. They are ideal for something like clamping edge banding to shelves.

I think the 36" clamps are the best deal. These things really bow under tension when they get into the longer sizes.

[John Bailey]

Sometimes you just need a whole load of clamps. I've bought a lot of Harbor Freight clamps. They are always cheap, often are not very good, but do a great job if you know what they are. If I need straight, if I need strong, I don't use them -- I use my good clamps. If I just need a lot of clamps, they are fine.

John

[Curt Harms]

Sometimes you just need a whole load of clamps. I've bought a lot of Harbor Freight clamps. They are always cheap, often are not very good, but do a great job if you know what they are. If I need straight, if I need strong, I don't use them -- I use my good clamps. If I just need a lot of clamps, they are fine.

John

Precisely. Sometimes, to paraphrase Joseph Stalin, quantity has a quality all its own.

[Matt Day]

I have a few of their f clamps and they are great. The only thing I've found to watch out for is that one of mine comes apart if opened all the way. So check at the store and make sure the little dimple stop at the bottom is there.

[Stan Smith]

I think that you get what you pay for. If you only need a lot of clamps once in awhile, then they will work. I started out with a bunch of HF clamps, but have been upgrading as I'm able over the years. I like Bessey the best.

[Gary Hodgin]

If you're referring to these, yes I have a couple a plan to pick up a few more next time I'm near a HF. They are light weight but I picked up a tip from a Paul Sellers video on how to improve them. He uses some similar clamps in some of his videos, search Paul Sellers workbench on you tube. He glues a couple of pieces of leather (or thin strip of wood) to the sides of the clamp and inserts a strip of wood into the aluminum bar and pings the ends to hold the strip in.

http://www.harborfreight.com/36-inch-aluminum-bar-clamp-38184.html

Here's the Seller's modification to a clamp similar to HF.

http://paulsellers.com/2011/11/4473/

[Bud Millis]

They are cheap (to buy) - I have a ton of HF clamps and have never broken one. They look & feel cheap, they are inexpensive and they work. If you have square stock (or make jigs for your setup) and do a good glue up you won't have a problem. All of them exert good clamping pressure. As far as the pipe clamps - I've gotten them from dollar stores, Big Lots, Ollies, HF, etc. and they work just as good as the Ponys that I have. The non Ponys all have leather faces hot melt glued to them. I've glued up a ton of stuff and with the scraps/cutoffs I break them every now and then to check the joints - its always the wood outside the glue joint area that fails.

The bottom line example (fill in your clamps):
I can buy 1 - Irwin 12" clamp or 4 - HF 12" clamps for the same price. On a 1 to 1, head to head contest they both get the job done with the same results. The difference with HF you get x number of clamps more. And the old saying is, you can never have enough clamps.

[Dave Cav]

No experience with the aluminum clamps, but I have a number of their pipe clamps and they work fine. Not as nicely finished as the orange ones but they work and the price is right. I prefer to find used Jorgensens, but right now I probably have enough pipe clamps.

I also like the HF "F" style clamps; they are cheap and work pretty well, and now they have a lifetime guarantee. I use a ton of them at school and if the students tear the handles up I just epoxy a piece of wood in it's place; if they actually break them or the threads get messed up, I return them for new ones.