Menu
What's new

New Bessey Clamps for the shop

David Crouse

David Crouse

Member
Messages
42
Location
Iowa
So, while I been gone, I have changed some of my tools a bit.
One of the latest things I've changed are my clamps. I used to have a mismatch of several brands/types etc... never having enough of the right kind. I finally bit the bullet and decided that was one of the things I HAD to fix...get clamps that were usable and enough of them to complete projects. So over the course of several months, I have acquired a few Bessey clamps. Missing from the photo, the matching dozen 6" heavy duty Bessey F clamps.
20190426_183631.jpg

I think it's a good start anyway :) I ended up giving away ALL of my old clamps, just started over from scratch and getting what I thought was the right clamps for the projects I want to work on. Gone are the old bar clamps that left marks and didn't give me the results I wanted, and the f clamps that wouldn't hold when to much force was applied... I know the clamp rack there (the mobile scaffolding) leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm pretty happy with the new clamps. This was probably one of the best tool purchases I've ever made as far as improving my shop goes. I think having great clamps (and enough of them) is highly underrated by new woodworkers.
 
You will be so glad you did that. The move to better work holding and assembly tools (like clamps) made one of the noticeable steps up in the quality of my end result.
 
One can never have too many clamps!

Years ago, I began buying Bessey or Bessey-style clamps whenever I could. Now, I rely on them almost exclusively.
 
It's amazing how many clamps you can use on glue ups....

20190407_173725.jpg

I have multiple boxes waiting to be glued up still.... :)
 
A non-woodworker would call that collection a crazy number of clamps. A seasoned woodworker would call it a good start. :D That's a great bunch of Besseys, David. I agree that good quality clamps are often overlooked by guys who are first starting out with woodworking, and until someone actually uses good parallel clamps, they don't know what they're missing.
 
That is a good start David. I should probably get back to buying more of them. I tend to hold onto the old ones still though too, just never have enough when you need them.
 
So, I bought most of these from Home Depot. I went online, and they had cheap prices for 24" and 50"....... so, I went to my local Home Depot and bought almost all of them. A couple days later, I realized that I wasn't charged the prices that are online..... they were approx $5 each higher in the store. The unfortunate part is I had bought over 20 of these before I caught it...sigh. The even more irritating thing is that there are 3 stores in the area, and I think they all have different prices. Sadly, they are STILL the cheapest I've found these anywhere. I did buy the 4 12" Parallel clamps at Acme, but they were about $10 higher.

Of course AFTER I bought them..... I realized, you know, I could have just cut the 24" bars down to 12"..... so yeah....... live and learn...I seem to still learn the hard way ;)
 
So, I had enough Rewards points for $400 worth of gift cards from Home Depot. Going clamp shopping when they arrive. YEA! Also have some more gift cards from my last church upon my retirement. It will be like free clamps to me.
 
Carol Reed said:
So, I had enough Rewards points for $400 worth of gift cards from Home Depot. Going clamp shopping when they arrive. YEA! Also have some more gift cards from my last church upon my retirement. It will be like free clamps to me.
Click to expand...

That is awesome !! :) Yeah.... never again will a round bar clamp darken the door of my shop. Parallel clamps might actually be the first thing I told a new woodworker to acquire. Life becomes easier with the right tools.... and a lot more fun. At least for me anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top