You Can Never Have (Long) Enough Clamps

[DerbyDad03]

In keeping with the spirit of "you can never have enough clamps", I purchased two 50" Bessy Revo's when HD lowered the price a few weeks ago. Those 2 clamps became the longest clamps that I have.

Guess what size clamps I needed this weekend? 55"!

A friend asked me to repair a full size headboard for her and I just couldn't get those 50 inchers to stretch quite that far. Luckily I had some aluminum angle iron lying around, so I drilled a couple holes in 2 pieces and made adapters to hook each 50" Bessy to a 24" Bessy and then did the "flip the jaw around" trick to create a longer clamp.

It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for the job I had to do.

I'd go buy a couple of 60" Revos, but the first job would probably require 61". ;-)

[Ed Pawlowski]

Don't feel bad. All my life I'd been told it would be better a couple of inches longer. You did your best and made do, so have I.

[Leon]

Yes you can, have too many clamps. ;~)

[Puckdropper]

Leon wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I don't see any evidence of that. The project's clamped successfully, there's room to walk around it, and you're posting here instead of adding or removing clamps. You don't have too many. :-)

If you've got so many clamps to install that you exceed the open time of the glue you need smaller assemblies not fewer clamps!

Puckdropper

[Bill]

I've got a bunch of 48" pipes, with connectors to go with my pipe clamps. The extra length came in real handy once when I did a deck repair, and even to clamp a 48" length. Maybe not as fine a clamp as what you you are using, but they have length. A piece of

3/4", 48", threaded black pipe cost about $7-8.

[DerbyDad03]

I had considered getting some connectors for my pipe clamps, but I didn't want to go out to the store. It was a fairly quick repair and I just wanted to get it done and out of the shop. Besides, I need a chance to play with my new clamps, I just hadn't planned on playing with all four of them. ;-)

[krw]

The longest clamps I have are the 50" Revos but I also have "extenders", used to connect Revos together when needed (e.g. to frame a solid core door to make a bench top).

[DerbyDad03]

Those are what gave me the idea to use the aluminum angle stock. Those are obviously better, but the angle stock worked for what I needed it for.

It's cheaper to do what this guy did but I tested it and didn't like it. See if you can figure out why.

[-MIKE-]

Or you could just use a bolt and nut.

[pyotr filipivich]

That's not "too many clamps" - that's "not enough support."

The only time you have "too many" clamps (books, ammo, chisels, etc, etc) is when you have to move. Or you can't find the one particular one you need / are looking for.

[Leon]

In case you missed the suttleness. LOL. The weight of the clamps collapsed the saw horse and work bench.

[Leon]

Cheap, yes. but defeats the rigidity of the steel bar. The rigidity of the bar lessens bowing. The Bessey connector prevents this.

[Bob La Londe]

On 6/18/2018 1:16 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote: > In keeping with the spirit of "you can never have enough clamps", I purchased two 50" Bessy > Revo's when HD lowered the price a few weeks ago. Those 2 clamps became the longest > clamps that I have. > > Guess what size clamps I needed this weekend? 55"! > > A friend asked me to repair a full size headboard for her and I just couldn't get those 50 inchers > to stretch quite that far. Luckily I had some aluminum angle iron lying around, so I drilled a couple > holes in 2 pieces and made adapters to hook each 50" Bessy to a 24" Bessy and then did > the "flip the jaw around" trick to create a longer clamp. > > It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for the job I had to do. > > I'd go buy a couple of 60" Revos, but the first job would probably require 61". ;-) >

That is a good argument for pipe clamps. Used to be able to get steel pipe 20' long. Probably still can, although maybe not at Box Depot.

[DerbyDad03]

Perzactly. When I watched the video I noticed that he never tightened the clamps, just extended them. When I tried his method I found that you lost all semblance of the parallel clamping that the Revo's are supposed to provide. (I totally expected that to happen) The looseness of the extending loop allowed the bars to move "upward" resulting in an inverted V and non-parallel jaws.

The angle iron I used prevented the bowing (for the most part). It served my purpose, but I can certainly see how the Bessy extender is the best option.

[John Grossbohlin]

The standard length for black pipe is 21'... a couple of those set up with Pony or Bessy Pipe Clamps would handle even the longest glue ups and "pull it into place" jobs I've encountered. ;~)

[russellseaton1]

I only have the old Bessy clamps where both heads are permanently attached to the bar. Neither head can be removed. The end of the steel bar is flar ed out to prevent the head from sliding off. With this extender and newer Bessy clamps, can you take the screw handle head off, reverse it onto anoth er clamp steel body, use this connector to join the two steel bars together , and get about a 90" clamp from two 50" clamps.

[DerbyDad03]

Uh, yeah, I'd have to do that glue up out in the street. ;-)

[krw]

Um, they're called "parallel clamps" for a reason. No, I'm not going there either.

[DerbyDad03]

You may have noticed that he never tightened the clamps after he installed the connector. Gee, I wonder why he didn't include that in his video?

Of course, his biggest mistake was posting the video in the first place.

[Puckdropper]

DerbyDad03 wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Harbor Freight has collapsable safety cones. ;-)

Puckdropper