Favorite clamps and where to buy, please.

[Tom Walz]

Tired of breaking cheap, big box clamps.

Looking for good clamps, both Bessey and Kreg types. Doesn't have to be those. Just have a guy who wants to sell me those.

I would appreciate recommendations on good, sturdy clamps and cheapest place to buy them new.

Thank you,
Tom

[John Coloccia]

What type of clamps are you looking for? I've always used Besseys and Jorgensen for bar clamps. HD actually has pretty good prices on the Jorgensens if I remember correctly. I think at least some of their manufacturing has gone to China, though. I keep meaning to send them an e-mail to figure out just exactly what's still made in the US, if anything.

Honestly, though, if I was looking for more clamps, I'd probably try to find a local shop that's closing down, and I'd buy them used. I know you said new, but...

[Matt Day]

My favorite parallel clamps are my Jet's. For F clamps, I like the Jorgensen's especially the HD's. For 6" F clamps, can't beat the HF ones for like $2 a piece. I have 10 or so.

[Mark Bolton]

Jorgensen/pony is still making a lot of product in the US. I am not a fan of parallel clamps but the Jets have my vote if those are the type you like. My goto clamps are Jorgensen HD's for F clamps, their I bars are my favorite, and my every day clamps (perhaps 50 or so) are the plain ol' 3/4" pony pipe clamps. I have a lot of smaller F clamps that are jorgensen and a few bessey's.

The customer service you will get from jorgensen is top notch. As to where to buy its just wherever is cheapest (google). Unless one of my wholesale distributors is running a special amazon often seems to be pretty competitive.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

What Mark said. I like my Jet parallel clamps. I prefer them for the trigger lock. Some say it's a PITA to adjust, but, when I was in the store checking out clamps, I did manage to slam my finger in the competetor's clamp. The folks who dislike the trigger in the Jets, say that slamming your finger in the competetors clamp is not possible.
I got my Jets from Woodcraft on sale, but you could find good deals all over the place, if you don't want to wait until the next large sale.

[Jim German]

I've got clamps of basicly every brand, and I like my Irwin XP600's the best. They are easy to use, good clamping pressure and no mucking around with getting the jaws to lockdown like on the parallel jaw clamps. You can use them one handed, and they work as spreaders too.

[Mark Bolton]

I've got clamps of basicly every brand, and I like my Irwin XP600's the best. They are easy to use, good clamping pressure and no mucking around with getting the jaws to lockdown like on the parallel jaw clamps. You can use them one handed, and they work as spreaders too.

I dont have any first hand experience with these but I have a bunch of (what I call) quick clamps in my construction trailer and I love them for what they are. That said, I dont know what Tom is looking to do with his clamps but I have never felt a quick clamp (or 20) would give me enough clamping pressure for glue ups.

I have jorgensen, vice grip, wolfcraft, and the like in the trailer and I cant tell you how many times they are a 3rd, 4th, 5th, hand but they are definitely not anything like a pipe/bar/parallel clamp with regards to clamping pressure. I guess he mentioned Bessey so that about sums it up.

[James Zhu]

Kreg Automaxx Bar Clamp is pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxtKxqoTF2M

[Frederick Skelly]

Tired of breaking cheap, big box clamps.

Tom, this caught my eye. I can sure understand wanting really good clamps. I also got to wondering if its possible that your bad luck with breakage might be due to overtightening your clamps? I ask, because I have a number of clamps from various box stores without any breakage.

Good luck in your quest for the good stuff!
Fred

[Jim Andrew]

Menards had the Jorgenson cabinetmasters on sale the last time I was there. I was buying a few every sale, but I have my rack full. I like the I beams best for gluing up panels. The only place I have seen those on sale was Grizzly. I also like the heavy duty f clamps, bought some 5" deep x 12" long, some from Grizzly, some from Menards, same clamps but different handles.

[Jerry Olexa]

I really prefer the JETS over both Bessey and Jorgy..All 3 are good but Jet easier to handle/adjust etc..

[John Coloccia]

I like my Jets too, but I'll say that it's not so obvious the first time that you need to pull the trigger and pull up at the same time to actually unlock them and get the to move. Drove me nuts for a while.

[mreza Salav]

depends on the type of task. I have many Bessey and they are my go to clamps. I use pipe clamps when the spread is large and I need lots of clamping force.
I prefer the newer style bessey over the old style. Jet is also good but the jaws are not as parallel as Bessey (but bigger).

[Jim Matthews]

What part of your current clamps is breaking?

Any photos available?

There's such a spread between acceptable quality (disposable) and heirloom quality clamps that costs matter.


For one, I can't fathom why the longer K-Body clamps cost so much more than short ones.
The only difference is the length of the beam, and that's just rolled steel.

The Dubuque Aluminum bar clamps are my personal favorite.
I have seen copies fracture and fail, but not these.
Longer beams aren't considerably more expensive.

The anodization is smooth, so glue is easily removed.

The "wing nut" style of crank is easy to torque, even when I'm tired.

I work mainly by hand, and after I've planed boards to dimension and smooth -
my hands are too tired to torque the Bessey style hand screw.

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=70618&cat=1,43838

[Paul McGaha]

For cabinet clamps mine are mostly Jorgensen cabinet masters. They were purchased at several vendors - Woodcraft, Home Depot, amazon. I have a few Bessey K bodies (in the 60" and 72" sizes).

My F style clamps are mostly from Bessey and were probably all purchased from Woodcraft. I have a few heavy duty F style that are Jorgensen's and I think they were purchased at amazon.

As I recall, a lot of my clamps were actually Christmas and Birthday gifts from my wife and kids. They did that for several years. My wife knew which clamps I liked and the quantities I was trying to put together. Clamps make great gifts.

Good luck with it.

PHM

[Wade Lippman]

I have a dozen of these.
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/aluminumclamp.aspx
I don't know why they aren't more popular, as they are great clamps.

[Bill McNiel]

Bessey K's. Rocklear currently has a sale on 31" & 18" combos

[Jim Andrew]

Menards made in USA sale started today, they have 24" cabinet masters for 22.99 . The 36 and 48's are also on sale. Sale ends Oct 4

[John Huds0n]

Bessey, usually from Amazon or other online vendor. I really like their newer K Body Revo style due to the softer grips and the best part is you can join two of them together to make a one longer clamp with the $20 extender

http://www.amazon.com/Bessey-KBX20-Body-Clamp-Extender/dp/B0014A44Y8297090 (http://www.amazon.com/Bessey-KBX20-Body-Clamp-Extender/dp/B0014A44Y8)

[Glenn Howard]

I don't know about favorite, but I recently picked up a set of Groz parallel clamps from Woodcraft because I couldn't pass up the deal (link below). I'm sure there are some that would turn their noses up or dismiss them as sub-par, or question the quality of the Indian construction, but honestly, put side by side with my Besseys, I've been quite please with the performance, especially given the price differential. The same setup in Jet or Bessey clamps would have been another $135-$155.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2085883/42523/Groz-Parallel-Clamp-Set.aspx

[Jim German]

I dont have any first hand experience with these but I have a bunch of (what I call) quick clamps in my construction trailer and I love them for what they are. That said, I dont know what Tom is looking to do with his clamps but I have never felt a quick clamp (or 20) would give me enough clamping pressure for glue ups.

The typical quick clamps only put 300lbs of clamp force, which isn't really enough. The XP600s have 600lbs, which I find to be plenty. If you need more than that, you can always use two (particularly since they are cheaper). Most parallel clamps (jorgeonson, Bessey) are like 1000lbs, which if you really need you're probably overclamping it.

I do like having a few pipe clamps which you can really clamp down with, more so than a parallel clamp, and they do come in handy from time to time.