Never thought I'd spend over 200 quid on 4 clamps..

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Prizen

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I'm a hobbyist.. a beginner one at that. After a couple of years never needing anything more substantial than Irwin quick grips , I finally had a project ( a large cabinet) that required some bigger clamps. Having seen the prices I was put off, so went ahead and bought a clamp head set from Axi and a trip to my local metal supplier for some box section saw me up and running. This was short lived however, as the head fractured under load. I think they were rated to 350kg, or it could've been more than this.

Anyhow, I bit the bullet and went ahead and bought four Bessey Revo K clamps.

So I'm just wondering how popular these clamps are with forum members, and a daft question but do these clamps offer more possibilities than other cheaper clamps?
 
Why on earth are you having to apply that much force with clamps?
Sounds like maybe you need to pay more attention to to the fit of your joints?

Bessey make good clamps but as you have found, at a price. I only buy them when there is a deal on somewhere.
 
Myfordman":ot4l3bwb said:
Why on earth are you having to apply that much force with clamps?
Sounds like maybe you need to pay more attention to to the fit of your joints?

Bessey make good clamps but as you have found, at a price. I only buy them when there is a deal on somewhere.

No idea what force was being applied. Had a quick search on these and it appears I'm not the only one to have them shatter.
 
I've never tried the Revo clamps but I've heard good things about them. I know their lever clamps and Duoklamps are excellent. I'm not sure how well the Revo clamps would hold up to the work I do such as gluing up doors, windows and big frames, they might do the job but they look more suited to cabinetwork in my opinion.

I bought a bunch of new 54" Record T-Bar clamps for £31 + vat each a few months ago. Lifetime "indestructible" warranty, absolutely rock solid and can put a massive clamping force down. They can also be bolted together to double the clamp length in a pinch.

irwin-record-136-t-bar-clamps-range.jpeg
 
I’ve got a number of Bessey cramps too and really like them. For most types of glue up they are brilliant. The large surface area of the heads and their relative parallelism seem to help every the time I use them. They are very heavy though and I do sometimes think that a lighter set of cramps, like the aluminium ones Paul Sellers uses, would be better for certain jobs. I’m always concerned that their weight might pull something like a small cabinet door or drawers out of true so am extra careful when glueing those up. Still now I have them I wouldn’t want to be without them, they really are very good.
 
I like them - rock solid and heavy enough to be stable on the bench when gluing panels

I use the 2-way clamp stands for squaring up cabinets

I’m £600 ish in the hole so far and would like 4x600mm too

... not cheap


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