A head's up

Clamps - never too many

I have a large sized Big Lots not too far from the house. I have found them to be good resource of different things I need like cloth drop cloths, painter's tape, and occasionally some nice paint brushes. It's rare, but they will have a lot of nice brushes once or twice a year. (My old painter turned me on to BL for this stuff).

So I am in there to get some roller covers (this BL usually has Shur Line) and some tape and I see clamps. Lots of clamps - nice clamps! They are Stanley "Bailey" branded (how's that for whoring out the last ounce of a good name?) clamps that are the deeper throated models. They call them the quick clutch F type clamps, and they have 24, 30, and 36 inch models for $10 each. Of course, the longer the clamp they better the buy is - they are all $10, no matter the size. They also had a huge jawed 30" clamps that have a 1 1/4" X 1/4" bar on it that looks like you could use it for a pry bar at the same price.

They had some other lighter style of clamps which I happen to like, too. Marked Stanley Bailey as well, bought some nice 36" clamps where both the head and the foot slide on a smooth bar by squeezing the two clips to release to rough adjustment, then the handscrew tightens to finish. Don't know what this style of clamp is called, but it is lighter weight and damn handy. I have some really cheap Rockler clamps that are starting to come apart, and this second style will fill the bill nicely in replacing them.

I can't afford all the Bessey clamps I want, no matter what the sale is. So I have a few Besseys that I use to orient and start my clamping for glue ups. These are perfect for the rest of the clamps that go on the work piece to secure it.

All those BL Stanley clamps all seem like nice clamps , and for the sizes it's a great buy.

Never enough clamps.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41
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Another thing stores like this are good for. Buying crummy tools that no good releatives can borrow.

Good thing they didn't have any surplus Festool clamps. You would have gone into a tool buying frenzy!

Reply to
Lee Michaels

Doubtful! If they had been Festool, I would have been able to afford one clamp! Of course it would have lasted the rest of my life, but the wood I clamp doesn't seem to know what the make and model of the clamps are that I use.

I was actually hoping someone would take a quick look at their local BL and but some for themselves. Affordable tools that actually work are kind of a rarity these days.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com skreiv:

Was it something like this?:

Reply to
name

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...

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Don't have one here, but my experience in TN was every store has different stuff and different sales at different times...

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Reply to
dpb

I stopped in the local BL to check out the clamps. On the shelf are 8 of the Stanley Bailey clamps, four at 24" and four at 36" and at only $8 each. I took all 8. I can't buy pipe clamps for that price. These are nice medium duty clamps, steel "I" beam type bar and both ends slide on the bar. These 8 will make a good addition to my clamp collection.

You can never have to many clamps.

MGH

Reply to
MGH

Yup, that's them. I clicked on the search box for more and they had all the F style, just not in the larger sizes. They didn't have the bar clamps, either. Maybe they were discontinued.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Snip

Well, I had to go an pick up some myself. Thanks Robert.

Now the bad part, these clamps come with rubber pads to protect the surface being clamped. Picth'em, they ooze oil on your wood. I just had this same issue with Bessey clones that had rubber pads. The Stanly pads come off and the surface under the pads is smooth so the pads offer little protection.

Other than that, they do work well and both ends slide along the shaft like some of the new Bessey's will do.

I got mine for $8 each.

Reply to
Leon

Glad you were able to score some.

One of us will come up with a work around. I will fiddle around a bit when paying 65% off. I am thinking about hot melt gluing a piece of something over the pads or on the jaws themselves. Back in the old, ancient days of bar and pipe clamps we didn't have pads for the clamps, so we glued pieces on (or kept some around) to use as pads for the jaws when clamping. I had some jaws pads made from commercial grade vinyl floor base that lasted really well, and they were glued on the clamps with liquid nails. They lasted for years.

Sombitch... why did I have to pay $10??? I was robbed!!

Actually, anytime I could pay $10 for a decent 36" clamp, I'll take it.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

(snip)

Add me to the "Thanks fer the heads up list"!

Just came back from purchasing a few (2 each of 24, 30, and 36 at $8, plus two 30" wide-jaws at $10 each). They also had the 12 or 14 inchers for $8 as well, but I didn't get those.

I hadn't been in that particular Big Lots in about 10 years, but methinks I'll be going back semi-often - good stuff in there now.

Jason Buckler Marietta, GA

Reply to
Jason

Thanks for the tip. My local BL had 3", 6", and 24" for $8. I took all they had, about a dozen.

Reply to
Richard Evans

Back when tires had innertubes, patch kids had rubber patches with adhesive backings that would suffice. Maybe something similar in a bicycle shop?

Reply to
Richard Evans

Uh, make that "patch kiTs."

Reply to
Richard Evans

My work around is to use nothing. I have several clamps with "smooth" metal clamping surfaces and unless I crank down severely I don't get marks. If I do need to apply lots of pressure I substitute a pieve of plywood scrap between the clamp face and the project.

Rich neighborhood? ;~)

I would have done the same Robert.

Reply to
Leon

I have been using the "heavy duty" stick-on pads that Home Depot (and others) sell for putting on the bottom of furniture legs to protect floors from scratching. They are made of very thick felt-like material and come with a strong adhesive. They come in multiple round & square sizes or you can cut your own from a bigger sheet. They give a lot of protection and don't ooze anything...

Reply to
blueman

I have plywood scrap squares cut out with magnetic tape stuck on the plywood squares for my pipe clamps. When I need protection, I just stick it on, no muss, no fuss.

Reply to
Jack Stein

Good point. Especially with the largest of the clamps, I rarely use them for anything "fine". Those bigger boys (like one of those havy duty 30" depp throat jobs) are perfect for lining up 2X materials when making beams, twisting a joist back where is should be before nailing, etc.

And I find I don't clamp things with as much pressure as I used to in years past. I read an article on furniture making that the glue makers ( I >think< it was Franklin) and some furniture makers group tested out the glues and their application several years ago.

They opined that there are a few things that screw up a glue up, .with most of these being pointed at edge to edge laminations for tops, etc.:

- Over tightening clamps can actually squeeze out too much glue. Until I read that, I always squeeeezed out everything I could withing reason. In my defense, nothing has ever come apart over the years

- By over tightening the clamps, it makes the wood walk around when trying to clamp for that perfect, no-sand joint. This makes it more difficult to accurately place the pieces. To me this is a technique issue though, at least on some cases. But, one thing I thought was accurate was the observation that over tightened clamps will allow the wood to rest in place while you finish, and then (especially with the glues with long open times) move around later. I have personally had this happen many times and make it a habit to check on my glue ups about 20 minutes after the last clamp is set. Most of the time, nothing, but sometimes an adjustment is needed

- Not gluing both sides of the material. I have seen many articles and tests since then that also said it was good to wipe your surfaces with a damp cloth before glueing as it would keep the initial contact point of the glue from drying out when the dry wood sucks out the immediately available moisture. Makes sense to me, but I still don't do it.

- Not enough clamps used. The obvious conclusion is that even pressure across a surface by frequently deployed clamps is better than clamping the snot out of surfaces with the clamps few and far between. An adjunct to this was inconsistent clamping pressure by using all different manner of clamps in the shop (guilty as charged)

LMAO! Got a good snort out of that one!

I have about 80 clamps now, some are just heavy enough to get the done (my little Rockler aluminum bars clamps), pipe clamps that are probably 30 years old, some ratcheting bar clamps from the '20 - 30's that were used by an old furniture maker (estate sale find), squeeze clamps I keep in my truck to hold things while I attach or quick glue a project, C clamps, etc., etc. And yet, if they go on sale somewhere at a great price again, I will buy more.

I have never been sorry about buying more clamps. The only clamps I have I don't use are my 52" Besseys. I know I will use them again sometime, but I don't know when. I bought them when making a "farm table" top, and paid $65 a piece for them plus tax. I have used them once.

I had a friend in the hill country that for a while had a furniture shop. After touring his setup and admiring his tools, he was annoyed with me for mentioning the fact he actually (I mean literally!) had much more money tied up in his Bessey collection of clamps than he did his table saw.

It is kinda strange, isn't it?

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

I went to a second Big Lots today. The one I went to yesterday had 6",

12", and 24", all for $8. The second one had 30" and 36" for $8, but the smaller sizes were $10. Go figure.
Reply to
Richard Evans

I have never had a joint from clamping too tightly but clamping tightly is really not needed unless you need to persuade a joint to close. Masking tape is plenty if the joint is a perfect fit.

Yeah I think that falls in the urban legend that you can starve a joint by clamping too tightly.

True, I am building a Walnut desk at the moment with laminated legs. The glue up was going to be a slippery one because of the creep when applying the clamping pressure so I used 1 3/8" pins on the ends to hold every thing in place, that works out bery well. Domino's on panel glue ups.

Same here.

I was counting today, not as many as Swingman, ;~) but I am up to 26 bar clamps, about half Cabinet Masters and Jet's + 6 or so pipe clamps and numerous small ones.

Yeah, I have 6, 50" Cabinet Masters and wish I had more that were shorter but I got a deal at about $17 each several years ago.

Reply to
Leon

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm, thanks for the idea.

Reply to
Leon

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