am I OCD or is this normal

I’ve heard it said and I believe it, “You can’t have too many clamps.”

-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.

That’s a lot of clamps. Bt is it too many?

I’d say you need enough clamps and enough pressure to close the joint. But that can vary depending on the job. There is no way to say you need a clamp every (x) number of inches.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I heard it once said that “Clamps are like money in the bank, you can never have to many”. With that said, I was at a woodworking school that had a least 20 grand in clamps and we still had to go and buy pipe clamps that were long enough so we could do a proper glue-up on the work benches we were making.

-- Paul Sayre Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1959)

jay, you got a problem, and you came to the right place. A little retail therapy at the clamp store is all you need. Good luck, we’re pulling for you.

-- I'm a lumberjock and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day!

With quick grip clamps that looks about right. I usually reach for the parallel clamps, they cover a bit more ground. Add cauls and they stretch even farther. The quick type clamps are handy, but you are seeing first hand one of the down-sides.

-- Doug, woodworking in Alabama

I have besseysbut not enough
these were small profiled parts I was afraid to crush it with calls andit is small so it bends so alotta clamps

-- jay Rambling on and on again

Technically, This type of Quick-grip Clamps are designed for “on the fly” holds, but they are not really designed for a final gluing where good preassure is required. In a situation like this, I would preffer any sliding-arm bar clamp with screw, like the Tradesmen Bessey (germany, not the china ones) or Jorgensen.

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

Quick grips are great for general construction and to hold jigs and bench fixtures in place but they just don’t have the nut to really be effective in woodworking. I have a variety of clamps..pipe clamps, bar clamps and allot of Bessys…I like them the best..they are good quality and always stay parallel and sit flat on the bench. They are a bit expensive but clamping can be the toughest and most stressfull part of a project, and to have to fool with clamps when you have setting glue is no fun!

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

Let me do a little unpaid advertising…
www.bowclamp.com
You only need two clamps!!

...end of story.
Just kidding! ;-D

WOW, What a great product!!
Every woodworker should have these (IMHO).

-- Lane Custom Guitars and Basses

alane those look cool but at the cost I think I would just buy more besseys

-- jay Rambling on and on again

There is no such thing as too many clamps, too much Hg or PSI. Well maybe there could be a little too much PSI…

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

Yep…...........Norm has always said”You can never have enough clamps” and boy how true that is.
Alanealane….......I just looked at those bowclamps and I like what I saw, I had vever heard of them before now. Thanks for the link.

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

Jay, one thing these can do that a normal parallel clamp can’t is get TO THE MIDDLE OF A WIDE PANEL OR A RAIL/STILE when doing carcass and face-frame construction, or when veneering sheets on a substrate… and that impressed me greatly. I just spent almost $400 on a Vacuum veneering system and now I sort of wish I had seen these first!! LOL

I haven’t gotten any Bowclamp yet, but I think I will. If anyone beats me to it, PLEASE POST A REVIEW ON LJ FOR US ALL TO CHECK OUT!! I’ll be sure to do that when I get mine…

And the guy who owns the Bowclamp site/company CLAIMS that it’s difficult to make your own and get ‘even clamping pressure’. Maybe that’s true, but I think some of us cheapo woodworkers could make a pretty close copy for ourselves and have quite good results. Maybe even buy one of each size, and use them as templates to make more FOR OURSELVES. Please don’t violate this guy’s copyright(s)...

Take care all!! ;-D

-- Lane Custom Guitars and Basses

I just checked pricing, and you can get a pack of 2 of each size Bowclamp for less than the cost of the same amount of Bessey clamps, but you gain the potential clamping capability of a few dozen Parallels!!

Now I own Besseys and Gross-Stabil Parallel clamps, but this thing just made the plain ol’ affordable f-style bar clamps look REALLY GOOD!!

...ok, ok, I’ll get off my stool now…

;-D

-- Lane Custom Guitars and Basses

...round here OCD is the norm….

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

I believe it was Fine Woodworking that had an article about six months ago on clamping. They compared various types of clamps and clamping situations and gave a table of the clamping pressure you can expect from each type of clamp. Then they analyzed how many you would need for a given situation. It was a good article. I will try to find it and post the issue information.

That said. There is no such thing as too many clamps.

-- Joe.....

Looks about right :) Here are some of mine…

I like to have them every few inches where possible :) Actually, I was reading that it’s good to have a lot of clamps closely spaced, as glues usually need 150-250 PSI, moreso in hardwood glueups. If you do the math, the 800-900lbs you get from a Bessey K-Body doesn’t actually go all that far in square inches. You need them ideally every 3”-6”, IIRC.

Btw, the clamps you’re using are 50% off right now over at Rockler. If you want more, now’s the time to strike!

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

I think you people have a fetish

-- if the hand is not working it is not a pure hand

I agree that you can’t have too many clamps. I learned the hard way. Here are some pictures of a pine cabinet I made a few years ago. One is a picture of the glue up of the frame. I only had a couple clamps so I used my vise with the bench dogs, the clamps that I had, and then improvise with boards, rope and ratchet straps. The other picture shows the gap between the side of the cabinet and the front trim as it is now because I didn’t have enough clamps. It’s flush at the top but then there is a gap down to the point where I had the next clamp. I actually used some of my wife’s clothes pins to hold some thin laminate down on a thin piece of wood just a couple days ago. I had them packed in side by side and they did the trick so if you count those, then I have hundreds of clamps. I hope these pictures come out okay; I just started a Photobucket account so I could post them.

-- Dale Manning, Carthage, NY

Nah, looks about right to me. Actually, without using any cauls, you could use a couple more clamps in there. If you would have put, say a 2” thick caul, you could get away with less clamps, depending on the wood. Joe was right about the FWW issue…They say a clamp provides it force with a 45 deg. outward angle. Without any cauls, the piece of wood being clamped will have some parts that aren’t getting eough force.

-- Childress Woodworks

Oh. well. I was going to get a new table saw and ask for recommendations from everyone, but now I’m just going to Rocklers and and max out on clamps. Wonder how many they have available at this price. :-)

-- Gary, Huntsville. May you live as long as you want and not want as long as you live.

I got most of my quick grips for 2.50 a piece.
I bought the two pack get two free at home depot every couple 2months or so till one day I got to the register and the four pack where $10 I went back and grabed every pack they had ;-)

I have other clamps and not enough as for the bow clamp I get real 2×4s and 2×6s for 30 to 40 cent board foot I just use pieces when I need If I am gluing really wide I run them cross the joiner and roll it in and out
I applaude that guy for his product and marketing but I think any wood worker buying something made totally of one piece of wood is either crazy or making estimated at $200 an hour + overhead to justify not just making these himself.

the piecess i am gluing are 3/8×5/16 and 1/16 at the edge the clamp contacts a caul or parralel does not seam apprprpiate to me but would love to se a better solution

thanks for the pics guys great stuff keep them coming

-- jay Rambling on and on again

what marketing?? haha

Thanks all. Judging from these pictures it’s pretty clear you’re not making your own…you’re buying more clamps. But I’d love to talk with those who have made they’re own. What types of projects are you using them for?

-- Bowclamp "good caul"