Harbor Freight Coupon for 12" bar clamp $2.99

[Mr__Bill]

The 12" HF bar clamps are on sale again for $2.99 coupon has a limit of 5 but you can print as many coupons as you want. In my opinion for 3 bucks these are great clamps.

Alas, the coupon is only good for the weekend and I don't think I'll be going near a HF this weekend.


click here for the whole set of coupons.

Bill
over here in the rain

[jking]

They also have on their parking lot sale a 3 piece air nailer kit. 18 ga stapler/brad nailer, 16 ga finish nailer, 23 ga pin nailer. Are these any good? They appear to be slightly different in the picture than I've typically seen in their ads.

http://parkinglot.harborfreightusa.c...m/info/home.do

So, apparently the parking lot sale is an expired ad.

[LCHIEN]

They also have on their parking lot sale a 3 piece air nailer kit. 18 ga stapler/brad nailer, 16 ga finish nailer, 23 ga pin nailer. Are these any good? They appear to be slightly different in the picture than I've typically seen in their ads.

http://parkinglot.harborfreightusa.c...m/info/home.do

So, apparently the parking lot sale is an expired ad.

Avoid the combo stapler/bradnailer unless you just want to use it for staples (I find i rarely use a stapler, but use a brad nailer frequeently). The reason is that the driver is the size of a staple and leaves a staple sized dent in the wood even when driving a brad with a relatively much smaller head!

I have a number of those "F" clamps and they're OK. For $5, only a couple dollars more, I much prefer the 6" Mini Quick grips from Irwin. They go on sale frequently, a promo four pack for $19.95 at Lowes, HD, and ROckler among other places. like here:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...ckler%20Outlet
They're only 6" but do 80% of the glueups i need and they're truly one-handed unlike the F-clamps, lighter, and don't mar the wood with their rubber pads. I find the HF F-clamps round foot leaves dents in anything that has to look good thus requiring a block of wood under and yet a third hand. The Quick Grips are my "Go to" clamp. I have a dozen hanging on my clamp rack and stacks of two or four on every bench (router table, drill press, bandsaw and assembly bench) in my shop. HF makes an orange/black knock-off of these but they are terrible.

[Larryl]

The 12" HF bar clamps are on sale again for $2.99 coupon has a limit of 5 but you can print as many coupons as you want. In my opinion for 3 bucks these are great clamps.

Alas, the coupon is only good for the weekend and I don't think I'll be going near a HF this weekend.


click here for the whole set of coupons.

Bill
over here in the rain

I went in HF today to look for an 8 ounce brass hammer(didn't have) and noticed these for $2.99 with no coupon required, walked out with six and two deep throat C-clamps.

I just re-read Bill's post and I see he was talking about 12" clamps, I bought 6" same type.

[cabinetman]

They're only 6" but do 80% of the glueups i need and they're truly one-handed unlike the F-clamps, lighter, and don't mar the wood with their rubber pads. I find the HF F-clamps round foot leaves dents in anything that has to look good thus requiring a block of wood under and yet a third hand.

A very easy clamp to use that is the lightest of all clamps and does not leave a mark are "cam clamps", and can be used with one hand. I've got them up to 36" long. FWIW
.

[duncsuss]

HF makes an orange/black knock-off of these but they are terrible.

True ... but last time I was in HF they were selling the 12" size at $1.99 each. Four of them mysteriously appeared in my shopping cart at checkout time

[LCHIEN]

True ... but last time I was in HF they were selling the 12" size at $1.99 each. Four of them mysteriously appeared in my shopping cart at checkout time

I'll buy HF if it works good. But Sorry, I just don't see the point of buying cr&p (the orange/black quick grip wannabes) even if its on sale. Cr$p at 80% off or $2 is still cr&p.

[Mr__Bill]

At one time I had two of the orange/black things. After discovering that even when repaired they didn't work well they got hung on the wall and forgotten. Then one day I needed to square a large carcass, so I cut the things in two and extended them with a piece of wood bolted on to the shaft. Now I have two 6' lightweight clamps for a task that really does not need much clamping force. They'll be real handy if I ever need them again


Bill

[Rance]

I missed this one. Got there and they were ALL gone. Do these clamps come up on sale often?

Yeah, their "quick grip" knock-offs are crap. I'm saving mine for when someone wants to borrow a clamp. I'll just GIVE it to them.

[Mr__Bill]

I missed this one. Got there and they were ALL gone. Do these clamps come up on sale often?

Yes they do. In the past they were often on sale as an in store sale without being advertised. I haven't seen many of those in a while but all the clamps go on sale is sort of a rotation. sometimes it's all the bar clamps or just one size, then another type of clamp. If you live close it's interesting to watch the sales and often you could find a good deal. I no longer live close so it's hit or miss for me as I travel and pass on of the stores.

One caveat on the clamps, try them in the store and make sure they have no problems like alignment or ease of turning the clamping part or whatever is the gross adjustment is works.

Bill
It rained all night but the wind blew so hard there is no water in the rain gauges. I expect it will hit the ground as snow somewhere in the Midwest.

[MK]

I'll buy HF if it works good. But Sorry, I just don't see the point of buying cr&p even if its on sale. Cr$p at 80% off is still cr&p.

I have a few of these and they seem to work ok for general clamping tasks. What am I missing that these are terribel?

[Ingjr]

I have a few of the above mentioned clamps and I think their great. Especially for the price. The Irwin quick-grip were mentioned and while I have a ton of these and like them for certain things, the HF mentioned above have at least twice the clamping force, IMO.

[Mr__Bill]

I have a few of these and they seem to work ok for general clamping tasks. What am I missing that these are terribel?

We have been discussing two different clamps here. The ones on sale at 2.99, nothing really wrong with them and seem to be identical to the economy clamps from many sources. The other clamps are the black and orange ones like this:


These clamps have in my experience been prone to breaking or coming apart in the clutch mechanism and even when repaired do not hold that much clamping force, and in addition the hand activated part is for me backwards. For me, and I believe others, these clamps are being labeled as less than adequate in situations where clamping force, reliable holding and a tendency to not come apart is important.

Bill

[phi1l]

We have been discussing two different clamps here. The ones on sale at 2.99, nothing really wrong with them and seem to be identical to the economy clamps from many sources. The other clamps are the black and orange ones like this:


These clamps have in my experience been prone to breaking or coming apart in the clutch mechanism and even when repaired do not hold that much clamping force, and in addition the hand activated part is for me backwards. For me, and I believe others, these clamps are being labeled as less than adequate in situations where clamping force, reliable holding and a tendency to not come apart is important.

Bill

I don't think these are designed to squeeze the last extra bit of moisture out of the wood, but for quick clamping where your joints are flat enough not to need to be re-aligned by clamping.

[LCHIEN]

I don't think these are designed to squeeze the last extra bit of moisture out of the wood, but for quick clamping where your joints are flat enough not to need to be re-aligned by clamping.

that's no excuse. a tool should be designed to hold up under the forces it can deliver. Having it break apart is just not correct for this type of tool.

The Quick Grips (trademark of Irwin) those orange and black one-handed HF clamps are designed to emulate and compete with may not deliver the absolute most pressure in the world but they sure don't break when i squeeze them as hard as i can.