Is this clamp too wonky?

[Dandan]

Happy Christmas all!
I was the very happy recipient of two Ax trade long reach clamps from my dad (clamp count has now hit 75+, I may almost have half as many clamps as I need), however when I got them home and had a good look, one appears to be on the wonk and I wanted to see if you guys think it's acceptable or not before I go back to Axminster.

Here's the good one, you can see in the left pic it closes up nice and central, and on the right you can see the clamping face is pretty perpendicular to the spine of the clamp.
(I took the plastic covers off for clarity)


Here is the suspect one, it seems the top casting is twisted along it's length, so the clamping faces splay as they meet at an angle, and you can see on the right how off from the spine of the clamp it is.


Is this an acceptable amount of wonkiness? Am I fussing over nothing? I did a quick test of clamping two bits of wood together and it doesn't appear to push them out of alignment, however I imagine with a lubricant like glue in there, there's more chance they would slip out of alignment.
If these were cheap clamps I probably wouldn't be bothered but as they are currently the shiny crown jewels of my clamp collection, I thought i'd check, see if you think it's worth trying for a replacement?

 

[Jameshow]

I'd send them back.

I'd perhaps expect it from the middle isle of Aldi but Axi should know, better but there again.....


I'd be worried that it would put an indentation in the wood esp pine or cedar etc

Cheers James

 

[marcros]

I would contact axi. they may not even want it returning given the cost of doing so but I would be reluctant to keep it, even so.

 

[stuartpaul]

I’d return that, not acceptable from people who want to be quality oriented.

 

[AJB Temple]

As well as ramping prices up Axi have abandoned quality control and outsourced that (for free) to their unsuspecting customers (as there are numerous threads on the Internet forums now suggesting Axi frequently supply sub-par goods). It is defective. Send photos and ask for a replacement with one that they have checked.

They are good clamps when they are manufactured correctly. Not quite as good as Bessey.

 

[Bristol_Rob]

Defo send it back

 

[Droogs]

wonky wood needs wonky clamp
reject it and as has been said already, there is a definite downward shift in quality from a lot of the UK suppliers recently. Must be to get us lined up with US trading standards for that amazing deal we will get as Trumps last act of inflicting misery on the US

 

[Dandan]

Thanks for the unanimous response everyone! As soon as they open up I'll get in touch.

 

[Rorschach]

Yep, I wouldn't expect absolute precision from a woodworking clamp but that is really bad, definitely needs replacing. You might be lucky and get a new one and get to keep this one, in which case you may be able to fix it.

 

[pcb1962]

Definitely not acceptable at any price.

 

[Dandan]

UPDATE:
Well Axi's quality control might be a bit off but their customer service was on point. I have a new clamp winging it's way to me as we speak and I've been asked to 'dispose' of the old one as I see fit.

I'm thinking I might yet be able to salvage the clamp to be largely usable, I guess trying to un-twist the casting would only end one way, so I reckon I might be able to file down the flat face at a bit of an angle to get a straighter contact, there's a little bit of meat there to work with. Any other cunning ideas?

 

[AJB Temple]

Great. That was the expected outcome.

I suspect their business model now is save money by having customers bear the quality control aggravation, and swallow the cost of replacing and posting defective goods.

Glad you got a good outcome.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

If you take the wonky head off, you can attach the shaft to a variety of things to make a useful holddown tool. Below are some clamps I deliberately did this to for my welding table, but you can also drill and tap attachment points for ends to fit in dog holes or attach directly to your drill press slots in some way.