Clam Clamps?????

[Carroll Courtney]

Has any SMC'ers tried these clamps before,and do you think that they are worth the 75.00 ea?I will be triming out my upstairs this summer and I need all the help I can get to make my miter joints look decent.Never though of using biscuits on miter joints before.Check out their site, www.miterclamp.com (http://www.miterclamp.com) Looks promising!!

[Peter Quinn]

I have a set (Mr. Chestnut is from my neck of the woods, though I don't know him personally). IMHO they are worth every penny of $75. They are brilliantly engineered, work as advertised, weigh about 5# each of stainless and brass, and pull in glued miters on wide casings like nothing else. Well, almost nothing...

The old Hartford Clamp Company seems to have originated the design that Mr. Chestnut perfected, and you can still find those around for a little less money. Check Toolsplus.com, I think they were stocking the hartford clamps a while back (tools plus is a good brick and mortar discount tool store withing driving distance for me, never ordered from their web site cause they are just too close). I've used the Hartford miter clamps too, they work, but the clam clamps work better and easier.

I just finished a mirror frame for a client using 5" casing, the clam clamps and biscuits. I couldn't break my test pieces with a dead blow, and I was hitting it pretty good. Its pretty standard here in CT to see all casings on high end construction biscuited and glued. I saw one job site where the trim carpenter must have had 25 pairs of clamps. They cut and glue every door and window opening on a floor one day, nail them down the next.

I move slow enough that one set works for me, two would be better, three would be overkill. You need about 30 minutes in clamps before you can pull them, a few hours before you can stress the joints. I like to drive 3/8" T-50 staples in from the blind side before pulling the clamps if I'm moving quick.

[Rob Wright]

I can only re-iterate what Peter has stated. I have one set and love them. Found them used, but paid almost list price from the website. I have used 2p-10 (fastcap) with them as well as TBII - both work - it just depends on how quickly you want to remove them and get to the next door frame. Check out the Review by Gary Katz

http://www.garymkatz.com/ToolReviews/clam_clamps.html

- Rob

[Peter Quinn]

Ditto Rob on the Gary Katz site..thats where I got the staple idea and a host of other very helpful trim tricks. Its worth browsing that site for a bit, tons of good vids and picks, lots of gems there.

[Dustin Thompson]

I am not a fan of the 2p-10 for miter clamping-much prefer titebond. I have had a bunch of miters in my house open that were 2p-10d together. All of the ones that were glued with the titebond are holding up great. The clam clamps are great.

Dustin

[Chris Padilla]

I didn't want to drop the coin for them but I used the "glue up casings w/biscuits on the floor" technique he described and will forever do my casings that way. I should probably send him a donation or something! :)

I used my Bessey band clamp to clamp up my casings and I was happy with how everything turned out. I don't know the size of your casings but I had to go find FF biscuits for mine...#0 biscuits were just a tad too big for the profile.