Spring Clamps

[Herb Smith]

I'm an older fellow with enough arthritis in my hands and wrists that opening spring clamps has become almost impossible. Like many people, the spring clamps that I have were bought at HD, Lowes or Menards and aren't of the highest quality, although they do the job well - I just can't get them open any more to do the job. My projects are all fairly light duty. Does someone make spring clamps with less tension so they can actually be used by people like me?

[Mel Fulks]

There are some smaller than the standard,and if you are not working with thick material those might work. If all of your clamps are of the same design and size ,you might be able to make some leveraging handles to slip over the stock handles.

[Steve Eure]

Herb, I saw a thread on another forum that addressed this same problem. I think it was on RouterForums. The person who wrote the thread said that his daughters, (I vaguely recall) had problems opening them. He took a bolt and wing nut and fastened the two halves of the handle part of the clamp together and when he tightened the wing nut the clamps would spread open. Unscrewing the wing nut would close the clamp. I personally haven't tried it yet, but I too have arthritis in my thumbs and those clamps are a bear to open.

[Jerry Miner]

Instead of spring clamps, have you considered a ratchet clamp like this?:

Irwin Ratchet clamp 2-4-18.jpg
Amazon has them here

They have a 1:1 clamping force, so you clamp only as hard as you squeeze.

[Ted Derryberry]

Instead of spring clamps, have you considered a ratchet clamp like this?:

Irwin Ratchet clamp 2-4-18.jpg
Amazon has them here

They have a 1:1 clamping force, so you clamp only as hard as you squeeze.

I have a bunch of those only because they came with sets that were cheap enough that I could throw these away and still get a good deal. I have pretty strong hands and I still find them useless for any kind of glue up. They are handy for hanging plastic sheeting up in the shop for temporary curtain walls.

All I can suggest is go somewhere that you can "try before you buy" and see if they'll work for you. Once you find some that will you can order more online cheaper.

[Steve Eure]

Here you go. I found the picture on RouterForums.

[Larry Frank]

I have the same problem with spring clamps. My grip used to be like vise grips. No after surgery on both wrists and arthritis, I do not use them and instead use Irwin Quik Clamps. As you get older, you find different ways of doing things.

[Jim Becker]

I have the same problem with spring clamps. My grip used to be like vise grips. No after surgery on both wrists and arthritis, I do not use them and instead use Irwin Quik Clamps. As you get older, you find different ways of doing things.

Same here...I have a whole bunch of the spring clamps but rarely have used them. More recently, while moving them to a different storage arrangement, I discovered that my hands in their current state and those clamps are less than compatible. Time to buy more "quick clamps"...LOL

[Nick Decker]

I thought it was just me, but it now requires two hands to operate those things. Kinda takes away a lot of what made them quick and easy to use. Oh well.

[Charles Lent]

Make a pair of extension handles to fit on your clamps. The use them every time you want to open one of the clamps. Mine are just some 5-6" lengths of 1" or so dowel rod with slots in one end large enough to fit the clamp handles. You may also need to grind off the top and bottom of the slotted end of the dowel a bit to make the end kind of an oval, but not enough to reduce the strength of the dowel. A pair of slip joint pliers will also work. but sometimes the position of the joint in the pliers that's needed to span the clamp handles won't open the clamps wide enough for the work that you are clamping. This is when I made my clamp handle extensions.

Charley