Irwin Quick Clamps

[chopnhack]

Very disappointing!! I went to the Borg tonight and it was a waste. I needed a quick clamp with good grip for setting down templates over work stock. I don't know about your experience, but I found that the holding power of the Irwin quick clamps (plastic vise grip type - no bar) seemed to be pretty poor. I ended getting the spring type steel clamps. What are your experiences if any with this type of clamp? Just curious.

[LCHIEN]

Very disappointing!! I went to the Borg tonight and it was a waste. I needed a quick clamp with good grip for setting down templates over work stock. I don't know about your experience, but I found that the holding power of the Irwin quick clamps (plastic vise grip type - no bar) seemed to be pretty poor. I ended getting the spring type steel clamps. What are your experiences if any with this type of clamp? Just curious.

I don't like any of the spring clamps - no way to adjust the clamping force.

I still like the Irwin Quick Grips - the one-handed bar clamps in the mini, 6" size as my all-around favorite.
If you look you can sometimes find the four-pack for $20 at Rockler or Lowes.

[Uncle Cracker]

If you opt for the Irwin Quick-Grip bar clamps, they used to come with a cosmolene-like preservative on the metal bar (don't know if they still do). You will want to use WD-40 to take this stuff off, or the clamp may slip at the worst possible moment (DAMHIKT). Since clean-up, mine have worked fine. I'm with Loring on spring clamps, particularly where strength is needed, although they do have some practical uses.

[jussi]

I've heard the newer XP models are much better.

[JimD]

I like Harbor Freight spring and bar type one handed clamps. I use the spring clamps for things like setting a stop for crosscutting - normally not for clamping wood together while glue sets up - I do not think they provide enough force for that. I have both metal and plastic but I prefer the metal ones. The bar type clamps work fine for light duty clamping. I used some last night on a glueup. I put one quick clamp on one end of the pieces to hold the protective wood pieces in place and the two blocks I was glueing up in position and then supplied most of the clamping force with C-clamps (also harbor freight). The C-clamps move the wood around more so I prefer to hold the wood in position with the quick clamps.

I do not love everything from Harbor Freight but clamps seem fine to me.

Jim

[LarryG]

A year or so ago I stumbled across these Bessey ratcheting clamps at Lowe's. I've not seen them anywhere else (including on the Bessey web site). Although strictly speaking they're not spring clamps, they WILL tighten down with authority. Available as singles or in packs of four.

At the time I bought mine, a four pack was only ten bucks -- a tremendous bargain considering that a single cost $5. I bought two packs and wish I'd bought a third. Still a good buy at $12.98.

[cabinetman]

I like the Quick Grip, and the ability to use just one hand. IIRC, Niki had one of his genius fixes for a common failure in these clamps. If he sees this thread, maybe he'll chime in. I also like the spreader type. Those can save the day.
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[SARGE..g-47]

I have somewhere between 20-30 (don't keep inventory counts) Quik-Clamps (before Irwin bought them out) and use them every day. There have been no problems (exception one which was a Quik Fix) in the 6-7 years I have used them and they are in-dispensable to me working alone daily. I started a coffee table Monday but stopped yesterday to build a new mobile clamp rack. I used Quik-Clamps at least on ten different phases on a 6' tall rack just yesterday.