What size clamps do you use most often?

[Brad Cambell]

I have been slowly acquiring my wood shop tools for the past several years. I have recently finished my wood shop and am now acquiring the tools to make raised panel doors and cabinets and desks, tv entertainment center, etc. Basically, I am building furniture for my house.

What length clamps should I tend to use the most on most projects? I know that is a very "it depends" answer to my question but there are so many different lengths and designs.

For constructing cabinets will I tend to use 36 and 50 inch clamps?

If I buy clamps that are too long, they will be unwieldy. However, if I buy clamps that are too short, they will be useless.

What size clamps do you tend to use the most often? And what kind of wood working do you do?

Sorry if this has been asked before but I'm not sure if I need long, medium or short. I know I need all of them, but which ones should come first?

:confused:

[ken masoumi]

You know all woodworkers will tell you "you can never have enough clamps".
I think you should have a variety of clamps like "C" clamps or "F" clamps from 2",4" 6" 8" etc.I find myself using 12" f clamps most often followed by 24" and 36" .you also definitely need at least 4 pipe clamps.
If you shop for f clamps ,look for the ratchet type which you the lower jaw stays where you leave it and doesn't fall to the bottom of the rail.
K body clamps are excellent but expensive.
Regards.
Ken.

[Val Kosmider]

Unfortunately, the answer which you are looking for is elusive.

You need a LOT Of clamps of various sizes.

I use everything i have (admittedly nowhere near enough) when i am doing glueups. For thin stuff where you are just face or edge clamping i use Jorgenson Screw Clamps, and an asortment of "C" clamps which require protective blocking on both sides. All told about two dozen of them is probably sufficient--especuially when you are doing a curved glue up or bending wood along a form.

After that i have a series of bar clamps ranging from 12" up to 50". I have two of each in 12, 24, 30 and 50 inches. Maybe six of each would be a good inventory.

I also have a couple of old pipe clamps. The longest opens to about six feet. I rarely use them.

I guess i use the smaller ones more often for gluing up and holding lots of small parts while fitting and screwing them into place than i do the others. However, when you need 'length', you got to have it. You said you were looking to do furniture/cabinets, and that requiers a LOT of long clamps in my experience. My numbers would bne minimums based on my ex[periecne. The best advice i can give you is that i don't have anywhere near enough, and each time i do a major project which requires clamping i buy a couple more. They (the goods ones) aren't cheap!

[Sam Murdoch]

For cabinet making, which is my principal endeavor, I use the Bessey K bodies. I have a dozen at 36" and a 1/2 dozen in the 42" range. I also have a pair of 12" and 2 pairs of 24". If I were to get more of these I would pick up a few more pairs each of the 12" and 24". Working with the 36" when I only need 24" is no big deal however as they are light enough even in the bigger sizes. These are the clamps I use 90% of the time in cabinet making and gluing up panels. I also use a variety of lengths of the Jorgenson steel bar clamps mostly in the 12" and 18" range and some quick clamps that Irwin and others makes. These are very useful though I would like to have some with much deeper throats.

I also have a dozen deeper and much heavier 4' iron Weltzer clamps and a 1/2 dozen of these at 18", plus an extensive collection of some longer Jorgenson I bar clamps, heavy strap/ratchet clamps and c-clamps of many sizes and some 100" x 3/4" pipe clamps. All very useful when you need them but by no means every day clamps for cabinetmaking.

As others have written and more will write - you can never have enough clamps. The K body Besseys though are a good style to start with for cabinetmaking IMHO and experience and of those I believe you would get the best use out of those in the 36" size with a few closer to 50" when you can afford them. As I wrote - these clamps are light enough that using a longer clamp when you only need a short clamp is not much of a compromise - but can be useless in the other direction.

[Mike Henderson]

I use 12" and 24" the most. But it depends on what you're building. If you specialize in larger pieces, you'll need more long clamps.

I can tell which ones are used the most because those handles are the dirtiest and caked with glue:)

Mike

[Jim Matthews]

24" clamps (http://www.amazon.com/Bessey-K3-524-K-Body-24-Inch-Parallel/sim/B0000224BB/2).

I'm about to try on some of the 12" klik" style F clamps (http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=69348&cat=1,43838)sold by LV.
Alan Little of Askwoodman.com uses the heavier welder's versions and they appear versatile.

I'm forever running into difficulty setting up the Big Bessey clamps (with twist handles) during glue ups.
The pawls don't readily engage when the clamp opening faces down - and I need both hands to hold the clamps up.

Lacking a third hand is a damn nuisance, in this case.

[John TenEyck]

I use 6" Irwin Quick-Grip clamps more than any other; just hundreds of uses. For cabinet glue-ups Bessey K-Body are really nice; the 24" ones I have are always an inch too short - I would buy 31" the next time instead, and the 50" ones are really heavy but good to have. I also have quite a few 3/4" pipe clamps. Both ends of the pipes are threaded, so I can easily lengthen them by adding a coupler to join two together. That feature has come in really handy a couple of times when I had some really long stuff to clamp up. I also have a few wooden hand clamps. It is surprising how many uses they have, especially when needing to clamp something at shallow angle.

My advise is to avoid cheap clamps. Better to buy a few high quality ones at a time.

John

[Leo Graywacz]

I buy pony clamps, the 1/2" kind. I use them on black pipe which comes in 10' lengths. I usually do 2 kinds of cuts on the 10' pipes. Either I cut it in half for my long clamps or I cut them 42, 42, 36 for my shorter clamps. The 42s get me about 38" between the jaws, they are my goto clamps.

[Rick Potter]

24" and 36". Of course, the 36" will usually work for both, just more unwieldly. Got a bunch of 48's, but rarely use them.

Rick Potter

EDIT: I forgot. Like John, I am always using those 6" quick clamps for something. The regular ones, not the light weight mini.

[Mike Heidrick]

40" for glueups

http://www.jamesltaylor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/main_images/usedrack1.jpg

24" and 36" mostly in parallels and alum bars for attaching face frames to carcases.

Always grabbing the tradesman besseys for various work. Also use my share of spring clamps.

[Joe Jensen]

I have around 48 Bessey Kbody clamps and they are what I use the most. I have 10 of the 12" and 8 of the 24". I use them the most and if I buy more it will be another 4 of the 12" and another 4 of the 24".

[Brian Tymchak]

As John mentions above, I use a coupler on my pipe clamps if I need extra-long clamps. I also have a bunch of the 31" Bessey Revo's. There is a K-body extender (http://www.amazon.com/Bessey-BESSEY-K-BODY-CLAMP-EXTENDER/dp/B008KWEERA/ref=sr_1_4?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1361806062&sr=1-4&keywords=bessey+extender) (that I don't have yet) that does the same thing for the Bessey parallel clamps as a pipe coupler. So, the takeaway is that you don't necessarily have to have to buy those extra-long clamps for those few big projects.

[Andrew Joiner]

10" handscrews and 42'' pipe clamps are used the most in my shop. I grab the smallest clamp I have that will get the job done. I do have some 1" and 2'' C-clamps that get used a lot on jigs and fixtures.

[Brian Kincaid]

The sizes in the Jet parallel clamp set I think 40 and 24 work very well for most work. I bought 2 k-body extenders and then drilled out the holes in a set of each size to use the extenders with the provided bolts. (I could have just bought smaller bolts but you know...)
-Brian

[Chris Tsutsui]

I have clamp sizes from 6" to 48

By far I use the parallel jaw 24" clamps the most, then I use the 12" "F" style bar clamps

Harbor freight now sells a clone of the festool/bessey mechanical gear type clamps for a reasonable price.

[Gary Hodgin]

As far a bar clamps go, I use 24" and 36" bar clamps most often.

[Charles Wiggins]

Brad,

I just recently started buying K-body style clamps, but before that I was using 3/4" pipe clamps because they were a bit cheaper. I bought several lengths of 3' and 4' black pipe that were threaded on both ends and several pipe connectors so on the rare occasions that I needed longer clamps, like clamping a king size headboard, I could make them by connecting the shorter lengths together.

I also use a lot of spring clamps and smaller F-style clamps on small projects.

Cheers,
Charles

[Michael W. Clark]

As far as frequent use, its the 6" quick grips. For cabinets and cases, I just bought a couple of sets of the Jorgenson parallel clamps, 24" and 40". I use the 24" the most. I also use 24" and 48" aluminum bar clamps from HF. While not the highest in quality, they serve their purpose for cabinet case construction. I typically don't need a lot of force, mostly just an extra hand to hold it together for fasteners.

With pipe clamps, get shorter lengths threaded and put sections together for larger glue ups. I like the pony versions better than the HF versions, I have some of each.

I also have a couple of the Bessey mini's (4" I think), their low profile is very nice and useful in a lot of situations.

[Silas Smith]

i use Besseys for the serious glue ups. 12" followed by 24". When I first started I bought 8 of the 60" thinking you can always go smaller but not bigger. The problem is that while 1 60" clamp is no problem, when you use 10-20 clamps on a project, the 20lbs project turns into a 100lbs piece you have to move off the table. You can buy a connector for the Besseys that allow you to put two together. It's counter-intuitive, but smaller is often better when it comes to clamps

[Pat Barry]

I can't tell you how many times I needed a 13 or 14 or 15 inch clamp and had to use the 24". The 24" tend to throw things out of balance and make it unwieldy. I wish I had 4 F clamps with 16" size. That would cover it perfectly.

[Jim Andrew]

I built one of those clamp racks similar to the one Rockler sells, but made it 30" long, and have it covered. Can't get all my clamps on it. Have been adding cabinet masters when they are on sale, but next plan to buy some 15" F clamps. Menards have a heavier line, they are imports, but much stronger than the tiny Jorgys I have. According to my use, have more 24" than any other size. I have one pipe clamp 10' feet long, for when I need it. Which is not often, but occasionally.

[Brad Cambell]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. In my short time wood working I have encountered what many of you have said. You can use a long clamp in place of a much shorter clamp. However, it tends to make the project tip over and I have had to use blocks to keep the project from tipping over or being pulled out of square.
I've got 6 pipe clamps and several F-type clamps, like someone said the one draw back to some of the F-type clamps is that the jaw will drop down if turned upside down. I just bought 1 50" Bessy K-body parallel clamp. Wow!! those are expensive!!! I could have a thousand dollars in clamps in a hurry! I would like to order a couple more but I am going back and forth between 30 and 40 inch Bessy K-body clamps. I am basing this on cabinets and a interior door that I'd like to build.
I really like the Jorgenson screw type clamps too, I have several.

[Mike Henderson]

I can't tell you how many times I needed a 13 or 14 or 15 inch clamp and had to use the 24". The 24" tend to throw things out of balance and make it unwieldy. I wish I had 4 F clamps with 16" size. That would cover it perfectly.
I've thought of sawing off part of the bar on longer clamps to make custom length clamps. Haven't done it yet but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Mike

[Sam Murdoch]

I would like to order a couple more but I am going back and forth between 30 and 40 inch Bessy K-body clamps. I am basing this on cabinets and a interior door that I'd like to build.


Please reread my post on page 1. Not to be the smartest guy in the room - I most certainly am not - but for what you are describing my answer abut the K bodies is my best recommendation based on years of using these very clamps. No compromise. Buy 1 or 2 more 50" (though as you already have some 50" + pipe clamps you could skip more of these) and then as many of the 40" as you can afford (the every day size I use are actually 33 1/2" clamping capacity, I guess these days you could get the 31" or 40") and you will be good to go for a long time. The too big K clamp is not a great compromise in this style and for stability and good clamping power these are pretty hard to beat. As I wrote they are not my only clamps, but if I were setting a person up to build cabinets I would buy these all over again. Keep your eye on the classifieds here. There have been some great deals on collections of Bessey K body clamps among others.