My Black Friday Jet clamps arrived today

[Kelby Van Patten]

Wow, these things are great! This was my first experience with the Jet clamps. I have some Besseys, and I've used Jorgensens, but the Jets put the others to shame! The Jets are significantly more robust than the others, and they measured markings along the bars are a nice touch.

The odd thing was that the Black Friday sale was over a month ago, and yet the clamps just arrived. I was not in a hurry, so it's no skin off my nose. I assume that they got more orders than they had clamps, so they may have been backordered or something. WMH probably should have communicated better. But the clamps are outstanding. I would highly recommend them.

[Rich Riddle]

They are good clamps to say the least. I ordered mine the same time and had them in a week. Go figure.

[Ruhi Arslan]

24" ones were estimated to be available in 6-8 weeks as of last week but arrived few days ago. I've ordered various sizes in multiples. Longer than 48" is shipped via freight which were delivered intact. But it seems like WMH should revisit their packaging options for these items. Every single box, without exception, was damaged. Some of them were completely open exposing the content. The caps at teh end of hte handles were dislodged but either dropped out of the box since box was compromised or were still in the boxes. In one case, clamps appeared to come out of the box but were put back in without the styrofoam supports. Overall, I am glad I could get these this time around to be able to say "I might have enough clamps". Now, I can throw away HF one time use quick release clamps.

[Garrett Ellis]

still waiting on a couple 12" clamps here...

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Jets are the bomb!

[Michael Mayo]

I have always wondered why clamps cost so damn much money? Those Jet clamps look awesome but damn they are a lot of money. You can never have enough clamps so that means you will be spending a lot of money on clamps if you buy the Jets/Bessey's. Just curious what was the Black Friday price on the clamps?

[Mark Bolton]

I have always wondered why clamps cost so damn much money? Those Jet clamps look awesome but damn they are a lot of money. You can never have enough clamps so that means you will be spending a lot of money on clamps if you buy the Jets/Bessey's. Just curious what was the Black Friday price on the clamps?

Agreed. We only have four parallels, two bessy's (purchased) (shoulda come with a jar of vaseline) and two jets that were free with a tool purchase. The Jets smoke the Bessey's hands down. We just find the Bessey's finicky and cumbersome to use.

But Ill opt for 72 series Ibars or 3/4 Jorgensen #50's all day long. You can put together a 60" 50 series for under twenty bucks and the Ibars are cheaper than the parallels.

[Biff Phillips]

still waiting on a couple 12" clamps here...

I got my 24", still waiting on 12" too.
I called the vendor I bought from about a week ago, he said Jet was overwhelmed with sales from Black Friday. They sold way more than they expected, so a lot of people are on backorder while Jet catches up.
I guess Jet underestimated the feeding frenzy this sale would create

[Allen Grenz]

I ordered twelve of the Jet clamps during the Black Friday price slash. They showed up about a week later.. I will definitely second the suggestion that they package them better...Mine arrived exactly like Ruhi describes. I really like the numbered scale on the bars. But I don't see a big difference in quality between the Jets and my Bessey k body Revo parallels, I really like the removable and replaceable faces on the Bessey's. I will say though that the trigger release is a somewhat better design on the Jets. The only bad thing is I lost a lot of wall space out of the deal..lol But I should be good on these type clamps now..

[Roger Davis]

I contacted Southern Tool today regarding the two pair of 12 inch parallel bar clamps I bought from them on the sale and they said it would be late Jan or Feb when they would be shipped.

[Mark Welte]

I received an email from the vendor I purchased them through that they sold 400% more clamps during the Black Friday sale than they did for all of 2013. The email said that the 12" and 24" clamps were literally on the slow boat from China. My 24" clamps just got here yesterday.

[Victor Robinson]

This has been posted about elsewhere, but apparently the Jet clamps sold for BF are different than the Jets we are used to. If you have older Jets, compare the screw threads and the clamping mechanism from the underside. Not saying it makes a difference in practice, but...

[Garrett Ellis]

Just got shipping notification of my 2 12" clamps from southern tool. Should be here tomorrow.

[Jerry Olexa]

Agree the Jet clamps are the BEST!!!!

[Matt Stiegler]

This has been posted about elsewhere, but apparently the Jet clamps sold for BF are different than the Jets we are used to. If you have older Jets, compare the screw threads and the clamping mechanism from the underside. Not saying it makes a difference in practice, but...

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't see the other posts, so for the benefit of anyone else who missed them this is what I see. The threads on my black friday clamps are inferior to all the other Jet clamps I have: much shallower, with a cheap-looking chrome finish, and noticeably less smooth. I don't see a visual difference in the clamping mechanism, but I can sure feel the difference: the trigger release on my current ones is easy and reliable, but these I need to fiddle with for 10 seconds before they'll release. There are other minor visual differences. Even assuming I just got two defective triggers, I can't see how anyone would think cheapo shallow threads on a parallel clamp won't make a difference in practice over time.

What a disastrous purchase. Waiting over two months only to get a bait-and-switch cheap imitation, my golly. Jet, you had me, but now you've lost me.