Making K-body clamps shorter?

[Jason White]

I have a bunch of 24" K-bodies, but none of the 12" ones.

I can probably spare 4 of them. Any reason I can't cut some of the longer ones down? Any experiences with this approach?

Jason

[Russ Buddle]

Ahack saw would work, but why would you want to? You can never make them longer again.

[Mike Henderson]

I can't see any reason why you couldn't do that. I have seven 12" K-bodies and they're the ones I use the most.

Mike

[Scott Wigginton]

Can't find someone with 12" K-bodies that'd like to swap even for your 24"? Seems the least wasteful IMO

[John Thompson]

I think it would be a huge mistake. Better to have too much and not need it (at the moment) than have too little and need it (tomorrow) IMO which is simply my opinion. If you do it and being a gambler.. I would lay money now that you would regret the decision somewhere down the road.

[Ben Martin]

There was a thread about this about 2 weeks ago, try a search.

I believe that Glenn Bradley had done this to some of his clamps.

[Paul Steiner]

More is always better I would not cut them. Good 12" clamps are not that expensive. If you do cut them I would put a spot weld, rivet, or screw on the cut end to keep the jaw from coming off.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Personally, I would buy more clamps. One can NEVER have too many clamps!

[Adam Strong]

+1 for just buying some 12" clamps. No such thing as too many clamps.

[Alan Schaffter]

I have thought about that too. With few exceptions I got my Besseys during the two frenzy periods 6 -7 years ago (incorrectly priced (?) at Sears and HD). I use my 12" as much or more than my 30" and find it hard to justify buying a new 12" Revo for $30+ when I have an excess of old style 30" that only cost me 14!

[Mike Gadget]

You could buy the Bessy K Body Extender and use it to join the bar back together if you needed it longer in the future. You would be limited to using the bar on each side of the connector, but it would be a workable solution. I may even try that myself if I find that I am not using my long clamps enough and need more shorts.

Mike

[Jay Jeffery]

I've been sorely tempted to cut up some of my parallel jaw clamps.

A couple years ago I bought a couple Stanley 30" F clamps. They have a 5" throat depth which I really wanted, but they were too heavy to be used much. I got 2 more (24 inch this time) and cut the bars in half to make 4 clamps with something like 11" of capacity. I still have the bars to turn 2 of them back into 30" clamps, but have not yet needed to (although the bars come in handy every once in a while since they don't deflect under a reasonable load). The short clamps are easily my favorite and probably get used more than all the other clamps in my shop put together.

I don't think you can mount the parallel jaw clamp heads on the bars without welding, so splitting up bars is not likely to work in this case. Craftsman sells removable parallel clamp heads and the rails look just like Bessey's. Maybe something like that could work if you wanted to make some Frankenclamps.

I wish the Uniklamps would go on sale.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

What are you guys using that short of a K body for??? The short clamps of mine get used a bunch, but its for stuff that a tradesman or some other non-parallel style is a better choice. The K bodies are for the bigger projects in my shop. Apparently I'm missing something...

[Paul Ryan]

I have 10 24" and would never consider cutting them down. They are the perfect length I use them 90% of the time. More often than not they are too long but 12" would be too short for most of my work. IMHO 12" would be a waste of money, for my type of projects. But if you do mainly smaller projects than 12" would be the perfect length. It all depends on what kind of work you do, but I would never cut down 24" in my shop.

But I don't see why you couldn't cut them and drill a hole for the leveler again.

[Joe Jensen]

What are you guys using that short of a K body for??? The short clamps of mine get used a bunch, but its for stuff that a tradesman or some other non-parallel style is a better choice. The K bodies are for the bigger projects in my shop. Apparently I'm missing something...

I have 8 12" Bessey K-body clamps and for me they are the most used. I have room in my clamp rack for 6 more K-bodies and I will likely buy 6 more 12" ones.

I rarely find a non-parallel clamp a better choice. I do use a ton of 6" C-clamps too. I am going to try some bessey lever action bar clamps just to see how I like them.