(guitar music) marc: welcome to episode 12 of the wood whisperer video podcast. i'm your host marcspagnuolo and today we're going to have a quick review of clamps.
woodworking routers for sale on ebay, now we get a lot of questions about what types of clamps to buy. as a lot of you already know, the variety of clamps out there is just staggering.
you got your spring clamps, your c-clamps, your quick clamps, your pipe clamps, your parallel clampsand your f-style clamps. it's no wonder people are confused. i haven't even mentioned anyof the specialized clamps. like many woodworkers, ispent a lot of money on clamps that i didn't really needbefore i knew any better. or i bought ones that weren'tadequate for my purposes and had to re-buy better clamps later.
so my hope is that by reviewing my clamps, showing you what i own andshowing you how they work, that you might be betterprepared when it comes to selecting clamps for your own shop. we're going to cover abunch of tips, tricks, and clamping strategiesalong with the way. and if you're interestedin any of the products that i show you today,make sure you check out the wood whisperer storebecause i have links
for all of these products there. so let's start with a look atsome more traditional clamps. here are a couple of c-clamps. now when i first startedwoodworking i stocked up on these because they were affordable. plus, they were the type of clamp that i thought of wheni heard the word clamps. so i figured hey, why not stock up. it was a big mistake.
i rarely, if ever, use them and they wound up being sold at a yard sale. so i still keep a few aroundyou just never really know when you're going toneed something like that. but i hardly ever have a need for them. so i recommend keeping a few on hand but don't go overboardyou only need a couple. now this is a traditionalwood screw clamp. i keep these around simply because
they look so "woodworky". i mean, what kind of woodworking shop doesn't have cool looking wooden clamps? but soon after i bought mine off of ebay, i realized that they actuallycome in pretty handy. they exert an incredibleamount of pressure and are very useful when tryingto clamp tapered surfaces. and one of the best uses that i found for them is holding pieces upright.
it's especially helpfulif you're assembling a large bookcase or a cabinet. and since they're made of wood they're not going to mar the surfacesof your work pieces. next up are these little spring clamps. now these come in handy for small projects or gluing down small parts. and one of the best uses ifound for them is repairs. if i'm replacing a pieceof wood that chipped out
or maybe a little veneer that'slifted up, these little guys can hold the piece inplace until the glue dries. but like c-clamps i really only need to have a few of them in the shop. so now let's talk about f-style clamps. these are one of the mostcommon clamps out there. they exert a good amount ofpressure, they're durable, and they come in everylength you can imagine. now i have a reasonableselection of the shorter
f-style clamps starting at the six inch and not really getting any longer than 12. i prefer to use a differenttype of clamp for anything longer than 12 inches andwe'll cover that in a bit. now the two sizes i use the most are these little six inch guys,and these big honking 12 inch deep throat models. now the small ones are great for clamping across a joint, like a tabletop.
their low profile allows me to get the clamp under the board and then make sure that they're perfectly even. now i keep about eight of these on hand. honestly, i'd like to have eight more. now these big guys, these are awesome. the long throat allows me to reach areas that normally i wouldn't even be able to touch with the normal clamp.
they're so well built and heavy duty that they exert more pressure than pretty much any clamp that i've got on my wall. now one of the most basicand inexpensive clamps out there is the traditional pipe clamp. now you can get all differentlengths of pipe from the big box stores in 3/4inch or 1/2 inch diameters. and the end of the pipes,themselves, are threaded. and it's matched perfectly to these
fixtures that you can buy. the fixtures usually run about 10 dollars. some are a little bit pricier and they're exceptionally strong. now if there's any realdownside to the them it's the fact that they have apretty short throat depth. meaning that the distance between the bar and the top of the jaw is pretty short. if you're trying to geta good amount of pressure
distributed over a taller space, it might not be the right clamp for the job. but if you need an eightfoot clamp in a hurry, this is by far the cheapest way to go. you can even pick up a few smaller pieces and buy the little unions,link them together, and get as long of a bar as you need. one other thing, just be careful when you use these clamps during your glue-up.
these bars can leave prettynasty stains on wood. all it takes is a littledrop of glue between the bar and your work piece and whammo, you've got yourself a nice black stain. this is especially truewhen you're using oak, which i'm guessing isprobably due to the high levels of tannic acid in the wood. be sure to put down some wax paper or some other material to block the glue and avoid
that nasty black stain. now let's take a minute totalk about quick clamps. the most common one that i've seen around is the quick grip series by irwin. now i've had these fora few years and they come in real handy,like holding stop blocks and other light duty workshop tasks. but i've never really usedthem for serious clamping. what you gain in convenience,
you sort of lose in clamping pressure. but irwin recentlyimproved their old formula and came out with a new one. it's called the irwin quick grip xp. let me tell you there isa night and day difference between the old ones and the xp. the labeling says it's twice the pressure but honestly it feelslike it's more than that. the body's more substantial,the bar is meatier,
and the clamping actionis very satisfying. now what i mean by thatis on some clamps you start cranking them downand then all of a sudden you hit a wall and you justcan't clamp it anymore. but then there's otherclamps out there that slowly approach the wall andyou get a real good sense of how much pressure you'reapplying with each turn or, in this case, with a squeeze. at the point when you feelthere is enough pressure
and the glue joint is niceand tight you realize that you could tighten it upeven more if you wanted to. and that's what i mean by satisfying. that's a major improvementover the old ones. and i'll tell you theseguys are actually finding their way into more andmore projects everyday. now i just need to get a few different sizes and i'll be set. now the last type of clamp that i want
to discuss is the parallel clamp. now a parallel clamp is basically just a modified bar clamp that's got a nice, rigid, square throat that helps keep your work aligned while clamping. now these are my go-to clamps for almost every single project. and if you stock up onanything make it these guys. now they can be pricey,but there's usually
a few big sales a year at either amazon or rockler and that'sthe time to stock up. now if you frequent some of the forums you won't be able to miss the sale because someone always announces it. if you start looking around,you'll soon find that there are three primarycompetitors in this market. jorgensen, bessey and jet. so which one should you buy?
now price-wise it's usually a toss-up. sometimes i see that jet'slisted as the cheapest. sometimes the jorgensen,sometimes the besseys. but in reality if you wait for a big sale, it just really doesn't matter. so the real question is,do any of these clamps have something that the others don't? now the besseys and the jorgeys, they're pretty comparable.
they're both quality products. there may be a slight difference or two but nothing really worth noting. for the longest time thosewere the only two options. but not too long ago, jetstepped into the market. and now the jets haveseveral notable features that, in my opinion, make itthe best option out there. first, they've got measurementsright here on the bar. at first i saw it and ithought, "wow, that's great,
"what the hell am igoing to do with that?" but then i realized thatin certain glue-ups, if you're trying to getall of your clamps opened to the same amount sowhile the glue's drying you can quickly just throw the clamps on the project and you're good to go, these numbers really come in handy. another feature is thisquick release lever. now i don't know howmany times in the middle
of a glue-up i'm trying to open up a clamp and i've got it stuck,wiggling the thing around, and shaking it and it's not budging. this quick release lever actually makes that problem go away. now one other feature which is pretty cool but i'll probably neveruse it is the ability to anchor the clamp into a bench using the bench dogs that come with it.
now they simply screw into the clamp on the bottom here and then drop down into the holes on your bench. it basically just holdsthe piece in position, which is pretty coolfor some applications. now another important feature of the jets is the size of the clamping head. you can actually seethe difference between this bessey and the jet.
it's probably a good 20percent larger than the bessey and that's prettysignificant for clamping. the last thing, which is a minor detail but a major improvement, is the handle. now you can get a seriousgrip on this thing and really crank it down if you want to. in fact, there's timeswhen i can tell that i can actually breakthe board quite easily if i crank down hard enough.
again, that's that satisfying feeling that i mentioned earlier. now the besseys and jorgeys,they've got a simple cylindrical wooden handlethat it kind of tends to slip in your hand when you really crank down. now i'm not saying throw out all of your old besseys and jorgeys, far from it. i know some of you guys have some pretty impressive collections,but if you're buying some
new clamps or if you're just starting out, do yourself a favor andtake a look at these jets. so the question comes up all the time, how many clamps should i buy? it's like they say, "youcan never have enough." let me clarify that, you can never have enough of the right type. i've got enough c-clampsand spring clamps, but i can always use more parallelclamps and f-style clamps.
at least for me, the onesi typically need a lot are the small f-clamps andthe deep throat f-clamps, as well as the smallest parallel clamps. those are the ones that irecommend stocking up on. now in general, i use my parallel clamps far more than any otherstyle clamp in the shop. and i absolutely recommend building up your collection over thecourse of a few years. it's kind of funny becausepeople come into the shop
and they think the clampwall just looks ridiculous. they seem to have a lookon their face that says "when are you ever goingto need that many clamps?" but i can tell you numeroustimes when the wall was quickly empty by a single project. now having all thoseclamps on hand ensures that you're going to clampproperly and your work is going to improve as a result of it. now, if you're alwaysscrounging for clamps
and trying to figure out ways to rig up a clamping strategy yourwork is going to suffer. now if you're reallynot sure what your needs are going to be you justcan't beat a starter kit. i've got two in the woodwhisperer store that i recommend. one's from irwin andthe other's from bessey. they include a pipe clamp fixture, a couple of f-style clamps and a few other things that'll help youjump start your collection.
and once you start using them then you'll quickly realize what you need more of and what you could live without. once you have all this moneyinvested in these clamps it's extremely importantto protect your investment. this means protectingyour clamps from glue. now you can use things like wax paper or newspaper or evenplastic wrap to protect your clamps during glue-ups.
but honestly that's too much work for me. what i like to do iswax the clamps so that any dried glue will scrapeoff relatively easily. now what do you do if you already have glue on your clamps? well, there's no magic fix, unfortunately. prevention really is the key. but there are two methods that i know of that get the job done.
one, is simply scraping off the glue. now this works fine onthe sides of the bar, but can be tricky onthe rib part of the bar. and those ribs are there for a reason so i really don't like scraping across them. so if you have a heatgun or a small torch, you can heat the glue upand actually soften it to easily scrape it off of the surface. the second method involves the use of a
brass wire wheel hooked up to a drill. the brass will not do anydamage to the bar itself, but it will do a fine jobof knocking off the glue. when your clamps are allnice and clean again, make sure you wax them. you don't want to haveto do this heavy-duty cleaning more than oncea year, if necessary. once you have a nice, clean set of clamps, you need a good way to store them.
i've seen some pretty incredible storage systems posted on the forums. mine is actually pretty simple. the main rack is made fromtwo by twos and poplar and it works great for most of my clamps. my parallel clamp rackis made from plywood and has slots cut out inthe top for each clamp to actually slide in to and that's easy enough to make that on a band saw.
so, as you can see clamps all pretty much do the same thing. they just do it in different ways. now it's important for youto determine which clamps work best for your style of woodworking. once you do that all that'sleft to do is stock up. now remember many of the items featured in this and every podcast can be found in the wood whisperer store.
so if you need some clamps and you want to help out the show,the wood whisperer store is a great way to do both. just as an fyi, you mightnotice a little bit more time passing in between the videosover the next few weeks. i've got a number ofcommissions coming due and they're all happening at the same time as our shop operates so things are going to be a little crazy for a while.
but if your jonesing for the spagnuolo, which i completely understand,feel free to check out the newly installed webcam on the website. we're still ironing outthe details but you should be able to get a peek intothe workshop every day. so, until next time, happy woodworking.
