using a band clamp

[Brian Runau]

I don't have a lot of experience using a band clamp, seems simple enough, but...

I have these 4 plastic corners intended to square the corners of the piece being clamped and I am wondering if this makes it easier or more difficult to get it clamped up? Wondering if I should use the clamp without the plastic corners.

Thanks.

Brian

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[Paul F Franklin]

I don't use band clamps very often, but I find the corners help apply pressure to the correct areas and help the band slide around the corners. Otherwise the band tends to grab the corners and pull things out of wack. I don't rely on the corners to get the frame (or whatever) square;they are not long enough to do that. I use a square or the diagonal measure technique to make sure the frame is square and just use the clamp to apply pressure to the joints.

[Darrell Bade]

I've never used the plastic corners. My experiece is if the ends are cut right you don't need them.

[Jim Becker]

You can use the clamps without them, but the corners do serve to keep the contact pressure "in the corners". I'd personally use them.

[Thomas McCurnin]

They are useless for squaring the box or drawer, but keep the band off the wood surface to protect the wood and keep it from bruising. I use them whenever I use the clamps. Square the box before clamping, apply the clamps snug but not tight, check for square and finish tightening them. Check for square one more time before you leave the glue on the boxes or drawers to dry.

[Brian Runau]

Thanks everyone. Brian

[Alex Zeller]

The corners are nice for helping keep the glue from getting on the band.

[Lee Schierer]

Neither of mine came with plastic corners. They seem to work just fine without them.

[Warren Lake]

will have to look back did 175 boxes for a lady once and tried a number of different things till I got what I wanted. Pretty sure i used those and maybe modified them a bit. All boxes were square.

Looking see I did it a number of ways. one way was just having an end and side attached to a piece of MDF then that establishes square whether band clamps or adjustable clamps.

All of the plastic was junk as after its formed its not square. See I did this which was ends from one type of clamp, I shaped them to put pressure on he mitre, then a band from a different clamp and handle from another. Worked well doing maybe 10 at a time.

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[Aaron Inami]

The only thing that pops into my mind every time I see this forum topic is "...this one time, at band camp..."

[mike calabrese]

We have a few of the clamps linked below. Cost a bit more but they work perfectly. The banding is steel instead of a strap so there is zero stretch. The clamp itself is all metal where it counts. These were invaluable when we were building some large wall mounted display cases for a local university. I also have some similar to shown above here they are OK but for my money you cant beat the Merle clamp
https://www.amazon.com/Peachtree-Woodworking-MERLE-BAND-CLAMP/dp/B001JB8LD2
mike calabrese

[Tom Bender]

175 boxes, wow!

To do multiples I'd add a block under each of the plastic corners, attached with tape. That would lift it to the correct height.

[Warren Lake]

Fine the way it was. The fixed block two sides on MDF and traditional clamps was fine as well. The snap clamps people show are not good you go from not enough to too much, a turn handle lets you dial in what you want and metal band is not needed the stretch in that strap is nothing on small stuff and you can see ive drilled and put 10/32 screws in. You will get more slip in a clamp than those straps will do. They are not the original straps I took them off as originals were crap quality. Always worth modifying stuff if you are doing a run.

[Rich Engelhardt]

They are useless for squaring the box or drawer, but keep the band off the wood surface to protect the wood and keep it from bruising. I use them whenever I use the clamps. Square the box before clamping, apply the clamps snug but not tight, check for square and finish tightening them. Check for square one more time before you leave the glue on the boxes or drawers to dry.
Boy ain't that the truth!
That's a mistake you won't repeat..

[Osvaldo Cristo]

My experience with Merle Band Clamp, all metal clamp, including the band, since 1992 is they help a lot, including helping to maintain square boxes. I found they can replace a bunch of "conventional" clamps.

They are part of my core tools in my workshop. If I had to start from scratch, they certainly would be in the priority list.