Friday, October 21, 2011

Clamps on the Wall

   Over the last couple of months I have talked about clamps in a number of blogs.  It is my belief that clamps are a vital part of woodworking, and that having the right clamp makes many tasks easier.
    This is one corner of my shop, the place were many, not all of my clamps live when not in use.
   In the under left you see my selection of carpenter's clamps, about half by Jorgensons and that balance off shore copies.  The copies are OK but always my second choice.

  Below the Jorgensons are several clumps of spring clamps.  One of the best things I did was buy a couple of bags of mixed spring clamps   cheaply at a wood show.  Spring clamps are the exception to the rule, cheap seems to be OK, especially when they are not really long lived anyway. At the bottom left are my Bessey Bar Clamps I have nine, and last week that wasn't enough.  I was trying to pull a twisted display cabinet into shape before gluing repaired face frames on and  I could have used a couple more clamps.  It became a two stage job because I didn't have enough clamps.


   In the middle section are my F clamps of various sizes and my sliding squeezing/spreading clamps.  I bought spreader clamps to take some old chairs apart gracefully, they are easier on the wood than a mallet any day.

 The upper right hand side is my set of light weight Lee Valley Anniversary deal clamps.  They are nice but very truly light weight and light weight clamping power.  Round it out with my Qwick-Klamps and my two first bar clamps and that just about covers in.

  Hanging from the ceiling but out of the picture are light weight fiber glass clamps, nice for small boxes and things with tight fit ups.  The fiber glass clamps are about has strong as holding things by hand, which is often enough and there is no fear of marking the work.


   You would think that I have all the clamps I should ever need.  Well....I could have used a couple of longer clamps for my most recent project, fortunately I was able to improvise.  Maybe I need a couple of 60 inch Bessey's.

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