The jaws on my home-made bar clamps aren't perfectly mated when not under pressure, but there is sufficient flex in both the moving & fixed jaw to accomodate that & they do the jobs for which they are intended quite satisfactorily: That's a sure recipe for failure down the track. In fact you shouldn't need to apply huge amounts of pressure, if the parts don't come together nicely under moderate pressure on a "dry fit", it's a good idea to find out why & try to correct it rather than squeeze the daylights out of it. You will travel a mile or two to find any clamps that close with jaws absolutely parallel unless they have a pivoting jaw as some do, but the flex in the jaws should easily accomodate that & once screwed up, apply sufficiently even pressure for most purposes.ĭepending on what you are clamping, you might need jaws to close perfectly but for typical joinery situations, you'll find there is sufficient flex in the jaws of most clamps to distribute the pressure evenly enough. IE do I need to find replacements that are closer to 90deg or safe to live with them as is. All of them are less than 90deg.ĭeciding if I need to return the ones that are not close to 90deg off the bar etc. One of the four is close enough to square, the worst is perhaps 1.75-2deg off.
![parallel clamps parallel clamps](https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/YgcAAOSwJVBcYz9m/$_57.jpg)
If I close the clamps they vary in how off from 90 they are (comparing the moveable vs fixed faces). I could envisage this putting an uneven pressure on the work and possibly leading to the work wanting to twist/move or putting undue pressure on part of the work whereby the top of the clamp face contacts the work first rather than the whole face of the clamp contacting the work, as would be the case if the fixed end was square to the bar. I am a beginner and was thus looking for reasonable quality clamps to suit me for my hobby builds for a long time.ĭoes the fixed end not being perfectly square to the bar present issues when clamping? This was a quick check with a known good square. The fixed end of the clamps is not a perfect 90deg to the bar, whereas the movable end presents at 90deg. I just purchased a set of these (2x 600, 2x 1000, 4x blocks). Torquata5.jpg torquata4.jpg torquata1.jpg torquata8.jpg torquata3.jpg torquata2.jpg torquata6.jpg torquata7.jpg If you haven't jumped on the band wagon, get in quick - they're more useful than toilet paper in an apocalypse. they've got a great little trigger release thing that stops the clamp head wizzing down the shaft every time you hold the darn thing vertical, and they are built like tanks - see the difference in width and height compared to the rest of the collection (don't be fooled by the McJing - it's mostly plastic casing, and those stupid rubber faces keep coming off).
![parallel clamps parallel clamps](https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/ed3a57cf-b954-41a7-b015-5cc7409fbd19/svn/dewalt-clamps-dwht83832-64_1000.jpg)
It's always reassuring when you feel a thin layer of machine oil on a new tool out of the box. It only comes out as a last resort (which is unfortunately all too often), and I swear at it a lot.Īldav's are excellent - I use them all the time.
![parallel clamps parallel clamps](https://preformed.com/media/com_eshop/products/resized/PLP%20SubCon%20Substation%20Connector%20-%20P11K-max-1000x1000.jpg)
It's a clunky prehistoric beast that is a pain in the unmentionables.
![parallel clamps parallel clamps](https://sbc-content.s3.amazonaws.com/catalog/product/cache/2/image/1800x/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/b/m/bm_y-800_1.jpg)
Green torquata heavy duties vs David's (Aldav) black vs a Very Red Thing from McJing. It's really difficult to see the quality through pics rather than seeing the physical thing. I grabbed a set of 600's and a couple of 800's - missing from the collection since you (with extreme prejudice and malice aforethought) gave up the clamp game and stopped being my preferred provider.Īpologies for the poor pics - I just snapped a few quickies this afternoon. Thanks for the heads-up on this one, David.