I bought a couple of the new 3/4" pipe clamps made by Irwin, which are similar to the new Rockler ones in that the crank can still be turned when the clamps are standing on a surface. The difference is that the Irwin clamps do not require a threaded pipe. Great concept...if it is done correctly. Instead, they are totally useless because the clutch plates on the fixed side were installed upside down so that the long tabs point down instead of up. As a result, the clamp cannot lay flat, which completely defeats the entire purpose of these clamps. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of obvious mistake, and a company with a reputation like Irwin should never, ever have allowed this to happen. I spent nearly half an hour looking them over closely thinking I was some kind of idiot for not being able to make them work correctly. Then I looked them up on Amazon.com and found a reviewer who had precisely the same problem. I will definitely be returning these and if I ever buy another Irwin product I will demand that the store allow me to take it out of the package and test it first. If there are any Irwin reps lurking here, let me tell you that I did not enjoy having to deal with this problem while the glue was rapidly drying on my project this evening.
- posted
20 years ago