Cheap Wickes Clamps - Slipping

[Fitzroy]

Many of us jumped on the cheap wickes clamp deal thread so expect others are also experiencing. Of the 8 clamp I bought 3 are now slipping with only moderate pressure. I've had one apart to see if there is anything obvious I can fix/adjust but not found anything. They are really well built with a large clamping face a sturdy construction so I'd rather like to get them working again.

Anyone else having this problem and worked out a fix?

Fitz

 

[Yojevol]

Turn the steel bar around so that you're working on a less worn area.
Brian

 

[TheTiddles]

Many of us jumped on the cheap wickes clamp deal thread so expect others are also experiencing. Of the 8 clamp I bought 3 are now slipping with only moderate pressure. I've had one apart to see if there is anything obvious I can fix/adjust but not found anything. They are really well built with a large clamping face a sturdy construction so I'd rather like to get them working again.

Anyone else having this problem and worked out a fix?

Fitz

May I suggest they are perhaps not quite so well built? That thread is from January this year, if that’s when you bought them, I’d be taking them back

 

[Spectric]

Always a problem when you buy cheap because you buy again and again until you end up just buying some decent clamps that you should have brought in the first place. I started with the Irwin lever clamps because they used to do a great deal on them at the shows and they worked, but at another show there was a nice deal on some Bessey clamps. I had a job that was being a right pain in the butt getting a joint to close fully, so took the irwin clamp off and used a Bessey screw clamp and it just pulled the joint together, I just thought that I could apply more pressure with a lever clamp than something that needed rotation without any tommy bar. Now I just buy various Bessey clamps and there one handed clamp is very helpful, like having another pair of hands and that was recomended by a nice person on these forums.

 

[mwinfrance]

Old thread in here by a member from Poland ( Niki ) who has since died suggested scuffing / roughing up the bars or tubes with sandpaper..tried it and it works wonderfully.
Niki's jigs
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/the-wonderful-world-of-nikis-jigs.107708/look for the "grips".
All Niki's threads are well worth a read, some of the images are now gone, and some of the thread URLs need manually correcting in the address bar since the forum software changed ( that could be done automatically in the site's "back end " via htaccess or in mod whassit )..Gold in old threads here.