Anyone else have this problem with their clamps

I'm thinking that I'm not the only who has experienced this situation. You're getting ready to glue up a part or parts for a project and you get the clamps necessary to do this only to find that the clamp(s) that you grabbed are a little too short or longer than necessary. Like many of you I've acquired many clamps over the decades and, back then, the clamp of choice were the Bessey K body ones.

From using them over the years you know that their part number indicates the clamping size. But you also know that the indicated size is very conservative and they can clamp a dimension much larger. A good example of this is their 31 inch clamp which will actually open up to 33 1/4 inches. All of my Bessey clamps are the older style and this situation may not be true for their newer ones. I know if I were clamping a part that was 32 1/2 inches I could just grab a much larger clamp but that becomes cumbersome. So I finally took a few minutes to check and mark all my parallel clamps with their actual capacity. We always know the dimension of the part we're clamping and now I know exactly which clamp to use.

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Cool idea John. Thanks!

I can only see this problem happening is if you didn't do a dry fit with the clamps. Everyone does things differently, but I can envision lots of bad things happening without a dry fit.

Bob, I always do a dry fit but would prefer to grab the right clamps the first time.:D

Answer is stop using "parallels". They suck from the get go. The quicker you abandon them the quicker your life will get better.

Great simple idea...

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Originally Posted by Mark Bolton

Answer is stop using "parallels". They suck from the get go. The quicker you abandon them the quicker your life will get better.

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Whats your go to then Mark?

Wow- that's a strong indictment of the parallels. I've been using them for almost 2 decades. Is there an actual problem I don't know about, or have you graduated to a pneumatic clamping table to arrive at that conclusion?
two Jeffs are dying to know....

Have you worked with any other clamping system or routine or have you just defaulted to what youve read as the best/default clamp?

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Originally Posted by Mark Bolton

Answer is stop using "parallels". They suck from the get go. The quicker you abandon them the quicker your life will get better.

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I don't believe that the type of clamp matters relative to the problem being solved by the OP's solution..."what's the maximum opening for this specific clamp?" Clamp type is subjective. I love my parallel clamps/ But that's me. :)

Adreed. But a rack of 10" spread clamps make it pretty obvious you need a 30", 40" 50" 60"

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Originally Posted by Mark Bolton

Adreed. But a rack of 10" spread clamps make it pretty obvious you need a 30", 40" 50" 60"

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Another piece of the puzzle is that the clamps often open a little wider than their "number"...again, the OP's suggestion is to mark them with that information. It's not really about what kind of clamps; rather, it's about the convenience of knowing what's possible with a particular clamp. Many of us are not using our clamps daily, so a glance at a label helps us to remember something. :)

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Originally Posted by Mark Bolton

Answer is stop using "parallels". They suck from the get go. The quicker you abandon them the quicker your life will get better.

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Wondering what the better option is. Most of us consider our parallels to be our A team with cost being the main deterrent to having a lot more.

So back to the original inconsistently, Bessey probably is giving the capacity with the clamp screwed down.