New vs Old Pony Clamps

[Stew Denton]

A few months ago I built shelves for my wife's kitchen pantry. I needed to glue on some strips to cover the laminated edges of the nice softwood plywood I used for the shelves, this using 3 way clamps with clamp blocks on the flats and scrap strips to cover the edging to protect the wood from being bruised by the clamps.

I needed more 3 way clamps, as I only had 2 and they are boxed up under a BUNCH of other boxes, so I needed to get more clamps.

There was a pretty good deal on the auction site for 4 vintage Pony 3325 3 way clamps so I bought them. Some of the shelves were long enough that I didn't think 4 clamps on them were enough, so I ended up buying 4 new (orange color) pony clamps from a local big box store because I wanted to start clamping right away.

When I went to glue up the first long shelf edging strip, I discovered that the new clamps were not nearly as strong as the vintage clamps. They would spring apart when I put as much pressure as I felt was needed to hold the edging in place while the glue dried. (I used clamp blocks to protect the wood from being bruised by the clamps.) The clamp blocks would often even slide when I tried to tighten the center clamp screw down because I could not get the new clamps to tighten down enough on the flats.

I ended up putting the vintage clamps with one close to each end, and the other two evenly spread in the middle. I then spread the new clamps out evenly in between the vintage clamps and tightened them down as much as I could without springing them apart. I am going to try to get a few more of the vintage clamps and keep the new ones in reserve for light duty jobs I guess.

The vintage Pony 3 way clamps are much better than the new ones.

The bigger old Adjustable "C" clamps, the 4" and bigger, are great as are some other vintage clamps, but except for one brand of new darned heavy duty "C" clamps, with very heavy duty prices also, I don't like any of the new bigger "C" clamps that I have seen.

The old Adjustable 3" "C" clamps that I use most are also great as are a few other vintage clamps, and I also have some new (within the last 5 to 10 years or so) BESSEY "3" "C" clamps that are really good as well, but I don't know about other brands. I can say that some of the other brands of this size that I have looked at seem to me to be none too good.

What are your thoughts on vintage vs new clamps of various types? Which brands and types have you found to be excellent?

Regards,

Stew

[Steve Eure]

I've noticed the same thing with the f-style clamps and the parallel clamps also. When Jorgensen closed down, a chinese company started making them. Quality went out the window.

[Charles Taylor]

I was in one of the big box stores the other day and noticed the current Jorgensen-branded handscrews for sale. The jaws were made of whatever species is common in consumer wood products from that country of origin, and the screws were smaller in diameter than either my older Jorgensens or the currently made Miro-Moose that I prefer to buy these days.

Are the imported Jorgensens adequate? Maybe for some. Maybe for me, too, but I'll likely never know. For reasons discussed in a contemporary thread that unfortunately ran a little off the rails, I prefer to avoid sending my money in that direction as much as I can.

[Ray Newman]

I follow some of the FaceBook w'dworking pages and there have been a few threads with photographs show cracked clamp heads after applying pressure to the new F Pony clamps.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

If I see an estate/garage sale on Craigslist mentioning tools, I invariably score a few old Jorgensens for a few bucks. I don’t need any more clamps but can’t pass them up. The new ones are, as noted, junk. I recently got lucky and found 12 Universal Clamp Corp. (now Dubuque) aluminum bar clamps of various lengths at a price less than 2 new ones. I really like them; they’re strong and light. A few years ago I bought a 4 pack of 6” & 12” Bessey F-clamps on sale at HD; they’re useable for light duty, nothing more. Wooden screw clamps - old Jorgys or nothing.

[Cameron Wood]

I bought a four pack of 6" Jorgensen F clamps online a while back.

They are lighter than the originals. They are fine for utility use- you don't always need or want a big heavy clamp but wouldn't want to depend on them when a lot of force is needed.

I have had a bunch of Wetzler clamps forever, & keep an eye out for supplemental ones.