Well, after some web searching, it seems te Bessy supergrip is not as good for woodworking as I imagined. The jaws are not wood friendly and putting protectection between them and the thing to be clamped seems like a lot of trouble.
Also, I can't find any dealer that sells the "Jig and fixture" clamp
-- I can only find it on the Bessey page...must be too new.
[snip]Found a short review of the supergrip (although it's not called that in Britain):
Norm = God
I am still trying to achieve his level of craft.
Once I do (if ever) I intend to become very cynical!
:-)
Lou
On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 17:55:57 -0400, "Gregory Paolini" calmly ranted:
The HF pipe clamps aren't much worse than the Pony crap. I thought I had bought the HF clamps until I looked closely one day and found a PONY on the end of one. I have a feeling that they're all made in the same factory in China anyway. ;)
What glueup is ever non-critical?
------------------------------------------------------------- give me The Luxuries Of Life *
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eI must be obsessing on this clamp thing...sorry.
For those that might be interested, I called Bessey today (actually their New York distributor) to ask about the "jig and fixture" clamp. First they said few people carry it because it's such a niche market but any could order it...
Second, she said suggested retail was between $120 and $140. Ouch. That's getting close to the cost of a new router, or a new hand plane!
They don't sell pads to prevent wood bruising. Also, it is probably overkill as a hold down clamp - over 200 pounds of pressure possible. There is a Jorgenson competitor but after I account for the 3 inch thickness of my bench, there's only 1.5 inches left. Bummer.
they're a clone of the jorgensen 3700 bar clamp:
Based on the FWW article, I downloaded the trial version of this program; DesignCAD 3D Max 15. I have absolutely no knowledge of CAD. When I found that the help was no help at all, I contacted the company. They tried to sell me the "Platinum version" but provided a link for free online tutorials. Unfotunately, the tutorials were set up for version 14, so they didn't work quite right for the newer version and even then, there was no explanation of how everything worked. I didn't buy the program although if I do buy it later, I'll likely spring for the platinum version so that I can actually learn what all the included functions mean and do.
Ed
I agree, Ed. It's really a shame they didn't do some work on their help system. After giving up on them with the same experience as you, I brought up another CAD program I haven't used for years. With just their normal help menus I was productive inside an hour.
Before go>
Doh! I get it now, "HF" for "Harbor Freight" -- I was thinking it was a style of clamp. I was dreaming up things like "Handy Fastener" or "Heavy Fastener" or "Hands Free" (Hah!).....
Thanks!
HF has had 48" clamps for years:
true. they could have reviewed those. they sort of did, in that they reviewed the jet version of that clamp. it was rated as the worst of the lot, IIRC. it failed after a few rounds of testing...
I don't doubt that. I had two or three of them at one time (the HF version), and they worked OK for a few projects, but always felt a bit flimsy, so I migrated to pipe clamps and have been satisfied with them ever since. For "budget" clamps, the pipe is mightier than than the HFbar.
H.
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