Upgrading parallel clamps

[roger wiegand]

My only advice would be dont by Revo's. They are the worst clamps we've ever owned.

Why do you say that? I've been very happy with the ones I have. Not quite as much pressure as pipe clamps can apply, but a lot easier to use, and almost always adequate to the task.

One of my goals in recent times has been to use better fitted joints and less brute force to make parts that are almost right go together. The parallel jaw clamps seem to be helpful in doing that.

[Jim Becker]

All of my parallel clamps are Bessey K-Body (the original version) and while the majority are the 24" size, I also have a couple 30", several 40" and four 60". I'd really like a few more 30", if only for better "shop safety". Long clamps on shorter things leave a lot of metal hanging out in the breeze, ready to catch you when you least suspect it.

I'm not "married" to Bessey for parallel clamps, however. Most are "good" and price is a consideration.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I like my Jets. In case you didn't know, and I don't know if others have since followed, but the Jets have measurement markings which makes a small bit of difference when setting them up.....

[Larry Copas]

I do a lot of cutting boards, end grain and long grain.

For cutting boards I only use Pony 72's or Hargrave I beam clamps. I don't know if the Pony 72's are still sold. I like being able to crank em down.

For parallel clamps I like most, but like Stanley and Cabinet Masters the best. I know the Stanley's are gone and I think the Cabinet Masters are endangered.

[Mark Bolton]

Its just been our experience. We only have 4 parallels in the shop (for a reason). Two are Jets that were free on a promo and two Revo's we bought in a pinch. The Jets are fine and the trigger actuated release is smooth. They dont suffer from a bit of glue on the beam. That said I cant justify the cost of the parallels in the first place. The two 60" Jets that were free would have cost $160 to buy retail!!! We could probably put together 8-10 3/4"x40" pipe clamps for that. The two Revos are the clumsiest, fussiest, most frustrating, clamps in the shop. Every employee Ive had who has had their hands on every clamp in the shop hates the Revo's to the point that if they handnt cost nearly $60 for the two of them they would be in the dumpster by now. They are the fussiest clamps in the world for even the tinyest bit of glue on the beam. Engaging the clamping action with the rocking motion of the hand screw is cumbersome at best. They (nor are any of the parallels) are not parallel especially under pressure.

Everyone in the shop has always been a fan of 3/4" pipe clamps or Ibars and you can buy nearly 3 full setups for the price of a single parallel. That means if your thinking of have 15 parallels in the shop you could have 45 high quality pipe clamps (expandable to any length) for the same money that will perform clean or dirty. Just my $0.02 but we cant be worried about clamps getting a bit of glue on them here and there and having to fuss with constant cleaning/caution/maintenance along with the time suck of fumbling around with sticky/clumsy action. We keep the beams on the parallels heavily waxed and hit them with a brass cup wheel when they get glue on them but those are all steps that are never taken with pipe/Ibars. We've probably got 75 pipe/ibars in the shop and I cant imagine what the cost would be to have them in parallels, forget about the fussing.

Having used both for many years I have just never been able to find the advantage to the parallels given the 3x cost.

[Edwin Santos]

I'm amazed to hear the negative reviews on Bessey Revos. They are the only parallel clamp I have, maybe 20 or so, and I have always thought they were great, really great. But now I'm wondering if in reality they suck and I just never knew it.

It reminds me of a divorced friend who told me he always thought his (ex) wife was awesome until one day he figured out she wasn't.

[Marc Burt]

I hate the revo and the Jet. They're just too dang big. I don't know why the clamp companies think we work with massive 12x12" timbers or something. I love my old Besseyl k bodies and they are still going strong thankfully. I've read this glue thing a lot on the forums and just don't get it. I've never cleaned my clamps and they work perfectly fine.

All that said I've recently bought some paralllel clamps from Peachtree (their private label brand can't remember what they call it) and like them so far. They're the same size as my original Bessey's and not the huge god awful monstrosities the others are. I haven't had them long enough to be comfortable recommending them but I do like the size and they SEEM well made - but time will tell. Happily they're slightly cheaper than the Jets of which I do have a few but they are wretched compared to my original K Bodies.

[Mark Bolton]

I'm amazed to hear the negative reviews on Bessey Revos. They are the only parallel clamp I have, maybe 20 or so, and I have always thought they were great, really great. But now I'm wondering if in reality they suck and I just never knew it.

It reminds me of a divorced friend who told me he always thought his (ex) wife was awesome until one day he figured out she wasn't.

I think that what you will find is that some "entity" has set the cool/lust factor for many tool's/items in the shop that overarchingly trump any cost benefit analysis or realistic comparison of performance.

I love the guy (im a MA native and apprenticed with people that knew him personally) but Norm kicked off the parallel frenzie and it's stuck for the long haul. No complaints here.

My perspective on parallels is not biased by my own views. I've had employees in the shop who have never operated clamps in their life but are held to quality standards and none that have been in the shop for any period gravitate to parallels. To the contrary they find them too slow and fussy. Lilkely some different workflow contributes to that but even members of local hobby colaboratives that swing in don't care for them.

I'm a whatever floats your boat guy... But believe in people having all the information.

[Mike Wilkins]

I have been using the aluminum bar clamps in the 24" size a lot. Mostly for glue-ups but sometimes for assembly. These are the work horses in my shop these days. Currently have 4 but plan to secure 4 more soon. I have 6 of the Bessey clamps but at 50" long, only get used for assembly of case goods.

[Ben Rivel]

I'm amazed to hear the negative reviews on Bessey Revos. They are the only parallel clamp I have, maybe 20 or so, and I have always thought they were great, really great. But now I'm wondering if in reality they suck and I just never knew it.

It reminds me of a divorced friend who told me he always thought his (ex) wife was awesome until one day he figured out she wasn't.

Ive got a couple dozen myself. They dont suck. Far from it in fact. They do the job well. Now, are there other, less expensive ways to get the job done? Sure, there usually is. But the REVOs are top notch and complaints about them are probably more due to their price than anything else. Imagine if they were $10 a clamp. Everyone here would be using them and nothing else.

[Mark Bolton]

Ive got a couple dozen myself. They dont suck. Far from it in fact. They do the job well. Now, are there other, less expensive ways to get the job done? Sure, there usually is. But the REVOs are top notch and complaints about them are probably more due to their price than anything else. Imagine if they were $10 a clamp. Everyone here would be using them and nothing else.

Not true for us. I have long touted the FWW article that states that virtually no one applies enough clamping force to any joint. The old adage that "you'll squeeze all the glue out" or "you need to leave room for glue" has been tested and disproven over and over. For anyone running hand clamps, unless you spaced them 4" apart, its virtually impossible to over-clamp any joint. Especially a long grain glue up. With that, a parallels clamping force is virtually nothing compared to a heavy pipe clamp or Ibar. So if paralells were the exact same price as a pipe clamp they still wouldnt be in my shop. The only comparable clamp on price is an Ibar (no longer availble) and I have always bought Ibars over parallels for the same money.

[andy bessette]

Pipe clamps are usually too heavy for the work I do. And it is possible to apply too much pressure, if one isn't careful.

[Mark Bolton]

Pipe clamps are usually too heavy for the work I do. And it is possible to apply too much pressure, if one isn't careful.

Undoubtedly due to repeated access to the article (and hoping to gain revenue) FWW has put the full article their paid subscriber section but this is the lead in

http://www.finewoodworking.com/2010/...mping-pressure

I would argue that unless you have a commercial clamp station there is no physical way that you could be applying too much clamp pressure. Leaving room for glue means your trusting the bond to the strength of the cured glue on its own. Thats not the way glue works. Your trying to get the wood fibers as close to each other as possible allowing the glue to knit them together. It'd be like holding onto your friend at each end of an icicle. Not very strong when the icicle snaps. But if your arm in arm, and the ice forms all around your bodies, elbows, arms, wrists, the bond is much stronger.

[glenn bradley]

Sorry I didn't run into this sooner. I would have predicted a wide and sometimes unbelievable range of responses ;-) I could have also predicted a "drill press thread" sort of outcome.

The clamps you prefer will be directly related to what you do. This is why you get a wide range of responses. As you've discovered, the Irwins are not all that but, can be had on sale at Rockler and the like for a good price. I have not been able to bring myself to buy any even on sale. When K-bodys were discontinued I went with the sub-par Groz K-body clones from Woodcraft as they were functional and dimensionally identical to K-bodys (or close enough).

I have some Bailey's which, despite a bar nearly as massive as the Jets, flex more than the Groz and way more than the Besseys. I find the Jets a bit too flexible as well. Parallel clamps are priced to remain parallel under pressure; many do not. Alas, I can't bring myself to pay the price for Revo's either although that is probably your best bet if you do things that benefit from parallel clamps. Bessey must've been sniffing Festool's marketing plans and figured Americans will gladly pay too much for decent German products.

Fortunately, early on I would grab a Bessey K-body any time they were on sale for a dollar an inch or less. At one point I thought I had over done it but, now, of course, I am glad. This would not be the case if I didn't like them ;-) I have pipe clamps for when I need more force than precision and when you need that, a pipe clamp is your best friend.

It may be that a combination of pipe clamps and aluminum bar clamps would work for you without breaking the bank. I could make this work for the things I do. I wouldn't be as happy but, I could definitely make them work as long as I had my arsenal of Bessey UniKlamps and mighty minis. What works for you will undoubtedly be different.

[andy bessette]

...there is no physical way that you could be applying too much clamp pressure...

Mark--we'll have to disagree. When using glue such as WEST epoxy, saturation takes time. So, if you squeeze out all the glue, a dry joint can result. (The formulator warns of this) On the other hand, if you wait too long to apply clamping pressure, the glue may harden before you can get the joints fully closed.

Also too much clamping pressure may distort a delicate or fragile glue-up.