How did you get so many clamps?

[Keith Bohn]

When I was first setting up my shop I'd pick up a 1/2" Pony clamp and a pipe nipple from the plumbing department each time I'd go to the home center. At that time the combination would run under $15 (include a coupler). I started with buying 24", 30" and 36" nipples (changing it up each time). Once I'd accumulated a dozen of each I concentrated on 18" and 48", and the occasional 60". The funny thing is I find myself using the 18" a lot.

The same goes for F-clamps. Gather the light-duty ones first then once you've got a bunch start on the heavy-duty ones.

It doesn't take long and doesn't seem as expensive when you sneak up on it.

[jack forsberg]

Hargrave brand of Cincinnati Tool Co are old school clamps and if you ever run across some get them.


The Cincinnati Tool Company was founded in 1877. In 1925, it changed its name to the Hargrave Company, which continued until 1955.
The information below was provided through the kindness of John McCutcheon, of Grand Rapids, Michigan

A "circled H" on tools made by Cincinnati Tool Company signifies that it was designed by my grandfather, John M. Hargrave (1889-1975).
Edward Hollister Hargrave worked for Cincinnati Tool Co. in the late 1800's. By 1911 or 1912, when he died, I think he was running the company.

I got them at an auction with e biding i needed some 8 footer and got them for $20 a peace. these clamps are the easy to ajuist and stay put and must have a 6" thread travel on the business end. plus the I beam bar is very ridged..




if I ever see anymore i am grabbing them as they are the best clamps i have use where you need pressure . I find that if there is glue all over them they still work well not like the F clamps that must be kept clean. you don't see them F clamps in the rotating bar clamp set ups do ya, the F clamps are for light pressure gluing and for the most part that all you need but when you need pressure for curves or large glue ups you need pipes or bar clamps. though this are not a light to cling around they last for ever,

I just did up a big glue up of 8 40" x 84" doors with bar clamps and you can,t bet them for price per foot.
with some simile t supports they work well enough.

have a look



jack
English machines

[Mark Bolton]

Looks like you need to invest in a door clamp!! ;-) Heaven help your knees. Never seen the shim method of applying glue.. Will have to give it a try..

[Alan Bienlein]

Hargrave brand of Cincinnati Tool Co are old school clamps and if you ever run across some get them.


The Cincinnati Tool Company was founded in 1877. In 1925, it changed its name to the Hargrave Company, which continued until 1955.
The information below was provided through the kindness of John McCutcheon, of Grand Rapids, Michigan


I got them at an auction with e biding i needed some 8 footer and got them for $20 a peace. these clamps are the easy to ajuist and stay put and must have a 6" thread travel on the business end. plus the I beam bar is very ridged..




if I ever see anymore i am grabbing them as they are the best clamps i have use where you need pressure . I find that if there is glue all over them they still work well not like the F clamps that must be kept clean. you don't see them F clamps in the rotating bar clamp set ups do ya, the F clamps are for light pressure gluing and for the most part that all you need but when you need pressure for curves or large glue ups you need pipes or bar clamps. though this are not a light to cling around they last for ever,

I just did up a big glue up of 8 40" x 84" doors with bar clamps and you can,t bet them for price per foot.
with some simile t supports they work well enough.

have a look



jack
English machines

+1 Most definitely!

Here is my collection. I did add some jorgy heavy duty f clamps that home depot was closing out but with what you see in the picture I haven't had a project I couldn't do with what you see here. That includes doing entry doors, bent laminations or raised panel doors for cabinets. FYI you only need 2 clamps to glue up a whole kitchens worth of raised panel doors and at most 8 three footers to do the panel glue ups. That can get you atleast 8 panels glued up and by the time you clamp the last one you can take the first ones out of the clamps and keep going.
001.jpg

[Rick Potter]

Glad you asked, I got lucky, twice.

I was buying clamps a few at a time like most, but one day 20 years ago, I dropped into the local ShopSmith store (yes they had a few) and found it was going out of business. I looked around, and in the back of the store where they did some teaching, there was a barrel full of Jorgenson clamps. They had the aluminum bar type, and the steel bar F clamps. I picked out a couple, and called out to the manager about how much they were (The Aluminum ones had a $20-$25 price tag on them). He yelled back that they were slightly used in the school, and I could have them for $5 each, or a package price for all.

Making an unusual (for me) quick decision, I yelled back "I'll take them all". That earned me some dirty looks from the other customers. In my creeping old age, I cannot remember the exact package price. I want to say $68 for some reason, but it was definitely under $100. For this amount, I got eight 24" and 10 36" bar clamps, and 17 F clamps from 18" to 36".

A couple years ago, there was an ad in CL about a local cabinet shop going out of business. Turned out to be a one man semi retirement business. Most of the stuff was from Rockler. Along with a bunch of other stuff, I bought twelve 4' Rockler aluminum bar clamps, and eight 4' bar clamp extenders with hardware. $2 per clamp, $1 per extension. Total $32. He just wanted them gone, so he could move out of the building.

Rick Potter

[Michael Dunn]

It seems that Menards has an annual blow out on Jorgensen clamps. Each year I buy their entire stock. One store that is. Sometimes two stores.

[Michael Dunn]

Try CL too.

[Jim Becker]

I have a reasonably large clamp selection and I acquired them by taking advantage of sales and choosing to invest in them when I could. They never go out of style, either... Most of my clamps are Bessy K-Body.

[Rick Fisher]

I have 38 x Bessey K-Bodies. Some are old, some are new style. I prefer the new style.

2 x Stanley K-Bodies.. Which came out and where discontinued.

16 x Bessey Tradesman clamps

2 x Irwin squeeze clamps...

[Timothy Wolf]

Grizzly runs a good sale around Thanksgiving that lasts until after Christmas each year they usually have good deals on clamps that might be worth looking into I purchased 20 of the Bessey H foot pipe clamps for right around $11 each plus the cost of pipe, I went to Home Depot and got them to cut and thread some pipe for me, I got 6 48", 12 36", and 2 60" from 7 pipes, hd will cut and thread them in store for free, which is much cheaper than buying all the pieces precut. I had a pretty good setup for about 400 if I remember correctly.

[Chris Fournier]

Over many years I have amassed a few clamps, I bought them as needed or when lust couldn't be resisted. One of my first shop projects was to make a couple dozen cam clamps for guitar making, the materials cost was negligable and I use them to this day.

[Bill Graham]

Shop the sales papers, Craigslist and the big-box stores. I built up a decent collection of Jorgy F-clamps and cabinet masters by buying a couple every week or so at HD, they beat all the internet stores on price. That's gone, they've switched to Irwin. Now Lowes is the place to go for the Bessey K-body clamps but stay away from their F-clamps, they're 'way pricey. Rockler has a great sale going on for select sizes in the Bessey Tradesman F-clamps, heavy-duty clamps in 4"x8", 5-1/2"x12" and 8"x16" sizes. I jumped on that with both feet and stocked up.

Shop around, buy a couple here and there when you find decent prices and pretty soon you'll have a collection like Jack. I think he's the exception that proves the rule....

Best,
Bill